SOILS OF SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY AND THEIR USES. 91 
The character of the agriculture of the locality is easily seen 
from the table of crop occupation. Hay and pasture, corn, wheat, 
and potatoes occupy 85.5 per cent of the total land area. Adding to 
these crops the areas in fruit crops and those occupied by farm- 
steads, the total is 94.2 per cent of the area, leaving only 5.8 per cent 
of the area occupied by other crops, of which the largest single 
acreage is that of Lima beans. (Figure 7.) In fact, the other mis-_ 
cellaneous crops of the area cover only 1.2 per cent of its total 
acreage. 
It is at once evident that the Sassafras loam, occupying 87.6 per 
cent of the total land area, dominates the cropping system. In fact, 

Fic. 7.—Bush Lima beans for canning, on Sassafras loam, near Freehold, N. J. 
the area was selected for mapping because it gave an unusually good 
opportunity for the study of this. type and its influence upon crop 
systems. 
It was evident from a reconnoissance of southern New Jersey 
that the Sassafras loam was of leading importance in the production 
of corn, wheat, hay, and potatoes not only in Monmouth County 
but generally wherever it occurs in bodies of any size. Thus, in 
Mercer, Middlesex, Burlington, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, and 
Cumberland counties this soil is almost universally used over the 
greater part of its extent for the growing of these crops. Figures 
8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 show the high state of cultivation and the pro- 
ductiveness of this soil when planted to these crops. In all locali- 

