SOILS OF SOUTHEKK" XEW JEESEY AND 'THEIR VSES. 



53 



It is probable that the grain crops would have been recorded in 

 considerably greater area if the survey had been made earlier in the 

 year, since rye is very commonly grown as a winter cover crop, either 

 io be turned under as a green manure or to be cut as a forage crop. 

 In general the small grains are neither suited to production upon the 

 soils of this locality nor able to compete in acreage value with the 

 truck crops, corn, or alfalfa, so that the area of the more sandy soils 

 devoted to them is small. 



The section immediately around Swedesboro furnishes a sharp 

 contrast in this respect to the soils in the vicinity of Woodstown. In 

 that locality the Sassafras loam and sandy loam predominate and 



Fig. 27.— Cultivating asparagus on the Sassafras coarse sandy loam, near Swedesboro, N. J. 



the small grains, chiefly wheat, are extensively and profitably grown. 

 The influence of the soil upon the character of cropping is clear. 



The Sassafras coarse sandy loam dominates the area, forming 37.5 

 per cent of the acreage tabulated. In consequence the crop occupa- 

 tion of this type does not differ materially from that shown by the 

 percentages for the entire area. The wide use of this soil for grow- 

 ing a variety of truck crops is demonstrated by the fact that 10 

 different crops are encountered on the type and that truck crops 

 occupy 53.5 per cent of its entire cropped area. A slight preference 

 for this type for asparagus culture is shown. (Fig. 27.) The de- 

 sirability of thi-s soil for truck-crop production is well shown by the 

 fact that more than 96 per cent of its area is used for some form of 

 cropi^ing. while truck crops occupy a greater area than all other 



