24 BULLETIN 140, TJ. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 
of the industry, as the soil is well adapted to their production, and 
the areas have good local markets. 
In the Middlefield series the range of types is about the same as 
in the Wether sfield series, so separate description is not given. It 
is a companion series to the Wether sfield, from which it is separated 
primarily on the basis of color, though there is some variation in 
the productiveness and adaptedness when some of the corresponding 
soil types are compared. These soils are of much less importance 
in Massachusetts than in Connecticut, where they support good 
orchards, and their adaptedness is closely comparable to the Wethers- 
field series, the difference being of type rather than of series. 
In the Talcott series a silty loam and a silt loam are the predomi- 
nating types, but in them the presence of small ironstone fragments 
makes the friability of the soil mass greater than it would other- 
wise be. 
A soil map of the valley and the hills immediately adjoining was 
published in 1903, 1 so the valley soils will not be described further 
in this report. 
THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS OF MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT. 
From the Connecticut Valley the irregular surface of the western 
highland rises to the mountainlike crest of eastern Berkshire 
County for a distance of 20 to 30 miles. Across this easterly sloping 
plateau surface flows the Deerfieid River in northern Massachusetts, 
the Westfield River in southern Massachusetts, and the Farmington 
River in northern Connecticut. All these are tributary to the Con- 
necticut River. When the drainage of the western plateau becomes 
southerly the waters are carried chiefly in the Housatonic River and 
its important branch, the Naugatuck, though the Saugatuck River 
is also of importance. These rivers with their numerous tributaries 
have cut deep courses with fall sufficient in most cases to give rapid 
currents. Deep gorges are local characteristics, but the streams are 
usually swift even in the more prevalent open country. Between the 
stream cuts there are considerable areas of relatively smooth land, 
with medium-textured Gloucester soils. 
Following the drainage basin of the Deerfieid River westward from 
its junction with the Connecticut, the valley is dissected only to 
moderate depth in the towns of Shelburne, Conway, and West Deer- 
field, the adjoining irregular hills including much farming land, of 
which some is excellent. 
In Charlemont, Buckland, Hawley, Florida, and Rowe dissection 
is much deeper, and with approach to the Hoosac Tunnel it is steep 
1 Soil Survey of the Connecticut Valley, Field Operations, Bureau of Soils, 1903. 
