BULLETIN OF THE 
No. 140 
Contribution from the Bureau of Soils, Milton Whitney, Chief, 
April 5, 1915. 
SOILS OF MASSACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT, WITH 
ESPECIAL REFERENCE TO APPLES AND PEACHES. 
By Henry J. Wilder, Scientist in Soil Survey. 
SURFACE FEATURES. 
Southern New England consists of a hilly plateau highest at the 
northwest and lowest along the seashore, the elevation showing a 
general range from less than 50 feet at the shore to 1,800 feet in 
the northwest, with an extreme altitude at Mount Greylock of 3,505 
feet. 
The surface features of this area are locally complex, but it is 
nevertheless naturally divided into three upland blocks and two low- 
land belts. These are, beginning at the west, the Taconic Mountain 
section, with general elevation of 1,200 to 2,800 feet; the Berkshire 
Valley; the Western Plateau, with general elevation ranging from 
sea level on the south to 1,800 feet; the Connecticut Valley; and the 
Eastern Plateau, extending from the Connecticut Basin to the coast 
with general elevation ranging from sea level on the east and south 
to 1,200 feet. 
For convenience in discussing the relation of the soil factor to 
fruit growing, and because of the importance of the elevation factor 
in such study, the Eastern Plateau is further divided on the basis of 
elevation into the Coastal district; the Framingham-Boston low- 
lands ; the Eastern and Southeastern Plateau, with general elevation 
of 200 to 700 feet ; and the Eastern Highlands, with general elevation 
of 700 to 1,200 feet, the lower part of this section being superseded 
on the south by an extension of the Southeastern Plateau. Figure 1 
shows the extent and relations of these several divisions. 
THE COASTAL DISTRICT. 
The Coastal Plain of the eastern United States does not extend 
northward, in typical development at least, to southern New England. 
The country from Plymouth-New Bedford eastward and northward, 
55570°— Bull. 140—15 1 
