236 GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF NEW JERSEY. 
seventy-five per cent. of which is woods.* It is slightly rolling 
in nature, seldom exceeding two hundred feet above the level of 
the sea, and is traversed by several navigable rivers + besides 
many small streams. 
The climate of this region, although close to the ocean, is, in 
comparison with that of Western Europe and the Pacific coast, 
dry. Our prevailing winds which come from the west are dry. 
During the hot, dry days of midsummer even wild bushes often 
die. On the other hand, the destructive effects of strong winds, 
frost and snow press are very slight. 
The East American life zones, each characterized by certain 
forms of life, extend westward with exceedingly irregular and 
broken borders. ‘There is a transition belt in which the North 
and the South more or less overlap. This is the true agri- 
cultural part of Eastern North America, where apples, white 
potatoes, barley and oats attain their highest development. It 
is where the oak, hickory, chestnut, liquidamber, white cedar, 
etc., of the south, meet the white pine, maple, beech, birch, hem- 
lock, tamarack and arbor-vitae of the north. South of this 
transition belt begins the first of the true Southern zones, the 
Carolinian, to which the Coastal Plain of New Jersey belongs.t 
A very large percentage of the Carolinian life zone is forestal. 
Owing to its immense size and to the nature of the agricultural 
crops which it produces, and for which there is only a limited 
demand, a large proportion of this zone is destined to remain in 
forest for many years to come. ‘The Boreal and Austral zones 
are forestal, the Transition zone agricultural. The eastern part 
of the Transition zone, from'the Dakotas to the sea, although at 
*The term ‘‘ forest’? is seldom used by woodmen. Good or bad, big trees or bushes, it is all called 
“woods,” which is a good generic name for such nondescript lands. The word “ forst,” from which 
comes ‘‘forest,”’ is a pure Germanic word, From the earliest times it has been applied however to woods 
which have been protected and regulated. 
ft is easy to secure an abundance of water in this region, which is a very important feature from a 
cultural standpoint. In addition to many streams, a natural copious flow may be obtained from artesian 
wells, so that in places irrigation is easy and practical, 
t The Coastal Plain of New Jersey is a northern extension of the Carolinian belt into the Transitiou 
Zone, It isin reality a part of the South in the North, and as Prof. Merriam says: ‘‘ When such farms 
occupy suitable soils in thickly inhabited regions, so their products may be conveniently marketed, they 
are of more than ordinary value, for the greater the distance from its area of Principal production a crop 
can be made to succeed, the higher price it will command. Hence, farms favorably situated in northern 
prolongations or islands of southern zones, or vice versa, should be worth considerably more per acre 
than those situated within normal parts of the same zones. The obvious reason is that by growing par- 
ticular crops at points remote from the usual sources of ‘supply, and at the same time conveniently near 
a market, the cost of transportation is greatly reduced and the profit correspondingly increased "” 
