12 BULLETIN 677, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
flow. Such areas are quite commonly grown up to water-loving 
trees, shrubs, and vines, and their only present use is to furnish 
scanty pasturage. In some cases the broader bottoms have been 
cleared, and excellent pasturage is found on the moist bottom soils. 
Some of the larger areas have been ditched and even tile drained 
and are used for growing forage crops, potatoes, and cabbage. 
Small areas of this class of land, commonly mapped on the soil maps 
as Meadow, are highly esteemed, if not present in too great area, 
because of the pasturage afforded to work stock used on the inten- 
sively farmed upland or to small herds of dairy cattle. 
There are also considerable areas of soils which in their natural 
condition require artificial drainage to become suited to the growing 
of the staple and special crops common to the region. Such soils in 
‘southern New Jersey fall chiefly into the Freneau, Hyde, Ports- 
mouth, and Elkton series. The greater part of the total area of 
these soils in the section is either forested or used for pasturage or 
for the cutting of hay. 
Usually soils of these classes are first cleared to afford added areas 
of pasture and, later, to come under cultivation for growing the 
forage. crops required on the particular farm. Sometimes small 
bodies of any of these soils, which extend into larger areas of up- 
land soils, may be drained more completely either by open ditches 
or by tile, and utilized along with the remainder of the individual 
field for the growing of the staple or special crops. In such cases | 
the common crops of the section are extended over such small areas 
without any particular reference to natural soil boundaries. 
The soils of the Keansburg, Shrewsbury, and Keyport series are 
rather better drained than the preceding group, but usually require 
some attention to artificial drainage before they are available for ex- 
tensive agricultural use. Even in their natural state they may be 
used to produce grass and hay, and a considerable proportion of 
their total area will support good crops of corn. For more intensive 
forms of farming, however, they frequently require ditching and 
tiling. When this is done they give good returns with such crops 
as potatoes and cabbage. The heavier soils of these series are com- 
monly used for forage crops, while the more sandy types are some- 
what preferred for the growing of the later and heavier truck crops. 
The general reconnoissance of the entire territory of southern New 
Jersey soon showed that the chief agricultural development, and 
especially the extension of the more intensive forms of cropping, had 
occurred upon soils of the Sassafras, Collington, and Colts Neck 
series. With these soils must also be included the small areas of 
soils of the Norfolk series to be found in the section. Not only are 
the soils of these series the unquestioned basis for the greater part 
of the agriculture of the region, but even scattered and restricted areas 

