SOILS OF SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY AND THEIR USES. 5 
PHYSICAL FEATURES. 
The general surface features of southern New Jersey may be 
described as those of a gently sloping plain of low relief which is 
marked by a ridge extending from the Atlantic coast line near 
Sandy Hook to the vicinity of Delaware Bay, near Bridgeton, N. J. 
(See fig. 8, p. 6.) From this ridge the land surface slopes 
unequally toward the southeast and toward the northwest. The 
former slope frequently is at the rate of less than 5 feet to the mile, 
but the latter usually is greater and frequently is accomplished by 
steeper slopes intervening between areas which are gently sloping or 
nearly level. It is estimated by the New Jersey Geological Survey 
that less than 15 square miles of the section rise above an altitude 
of 200 feet and that not more than 120 square miles rise above 100 
feet in elevation. 
One of the marked features of the region is the presence along 
the shores of the Delaware River and Bay of a lowland or terrace 
of varying width which rises gently to an elevation of 40 to 50 
feet. In places this lowland is not more than 2 or 3 miles broad, 
though in others it expands to a width of 10 or 12 miles. It is 
usually bounded, inland, by steeper slopes, rising to the watershed 
or to more elevated areas of gentle slope. 
A very large proportion of the entire area is nearly level or but 
gently sloping, and it is only over restricted areas that the surface 
slope is too great or that the land is too broken to allow tillage. 
SOILS. 
Practically all of the soils of the region have been derived from 
unconsolidated sands, loams, clays, and marls. Only in scattered 
localities has there been any hardening of the material into cemented 
masses of sand and gravel, or, as they are locally known, “ ironstone.” 
Some gravel occurs throughout the region, either in beds underlying 
the soils or scattered in varying amount through the soil and subsoil. 
There is a sufficient variety in the soil-forming material to give 
rise to a number of distinct soil types and series. These have been 
mapped and described in the soil surveys which have been made in 
the region, and a detailed account-can be found in the different 
reports. Therefore only a brief summary of the different soil series 
will be given. 
Lakewood series—The surface soils of the types in the Lakewood 
series are white in color and the subsoils orange yellow. The series 
occupies rolling to nearly level uplands in the Atlantic slope and 
'1¥ield Operations of the Bureau of Soils, 1901, Soil Survey of the Salem Area, N. J.; 
idem, 1902, Soil Survey of the Trenton Area, N. J.; idem, 1913, Soil Survey of the Free- 
hold Area, N. J.; and idem, 1915, Soil Survey of the Camden Area, N. J. 
