
SOILS OF SOUTHERN NEW JERSEY AND THEIR USES. ns 
where the Irish Cobbler or “ round-stock” potato is chiefly grown. 
Other things being equal, the Giant will normally outyield the Cob- 
bler by 20 to 25 per cent. 
The relationship of the Sassafras loam to the production of Irish 
potatoes as a Main money crop can not be too strongly emphasized in 
a consideration of the uses of the soils of southern New Jedsey. Thus 
the business of growing potatoes has been developed to a high degree 
of specialization in central Monmouth County. That this is due, at 
least to some degree, to the presence of large areas of the Sassafras 
loam is shown by the unusually large acreage borne by that soil type. 
The special adaptation of this soil to potato production is well known 
in the region and is specifically recorded by Jennings in the report 
on the Soil Survey of the Freehold Area, New Jersey. He says: 
The soils on which the principal crops of potatoes are grown have been classed 
as Sassafras loam, sandy loam, and fine sandy loam, and the Collington loam, 
sandy loam, and fine sandy loam. Other types are used to some extent, but the 
highest yields are secured on these soils, especially on the loam soils of the 
different series. 
Jennings also makes the distinction in his report that the early crop 
cf potatoes is grown to a considerable extent on the Sassafras fine 
sand, fine sandy loam, and sandy loam in conjunction with other truck 
crops. He states with regard to the Sassafras loam that “it is with- 
out exception the heaviest-yielding potato soil in the State.” 
. The personal investigations of the author in 1914 and 1915 would 
indicate that this statement is generally true of the type wherever it 
is found in southern New Jersey. An examination of the soil survey 
maps of the Freehold, Trenton, Camden, and Salem areas will show 
that all of the most important potato-shipping localities in southern 
New Jersey are located on or in the immediate vicinity of extensive 
areas of the Sassafras loam. This is true of Holmdel, Freehold, 
Englishtown, Dayton, Hightstown, Mount Holly, Moorestown, Mul- 
lica Hill, Elmer, Woodstown, Salem, and Shiloh. 
In the majority of these localities the potato crop, whether Amer- 
ican Giant or Cobbler, is grown on the Sassafras loam with the Col- 
lington sandy loam second in importance and the Sassafras sandy 
loam and fine sandy loam contributing a large part of the remainder 
of the crop. Upon these four soil types considerably more than one- 
half of the total potato crop of the State is annually grown. 
SOIL AND CROP SURVEY OF HARTFORD AREA. 
In order to study the relationship existing between soils and crops 
in an area of mixed general farming and special crop production in 

1¥For detailed statements with regard to the methods employed in potato growing in 
central New Jersey. the reader is referred to Farmers’ Bulletin 472, of the U. S. Depart-- 
ment of Agriculture, and to Bulletin 294, of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment 
Station. 
