The Northeast

N. C. Brady, R. A. Struchtemeyer, and R. B. Musgrave.

The cool, humid Northeast is dairy country. Climate favors pastures, the hay crops, and the animals themselves. Dairying enables the northeastern farmer to maintain his position in the increasingly competitive business of farming.

Because of his northerly location, the growing season for his crops is much shorter than that of farmers farther south. The relatively rough topography makes it necessary to farm small fields. The average size of a farm, 111 acres, is approximately half the national average. Consequently the north-easterner cannot compete with the midwestern and western farmers in the production of cash grain crops, which require large acreages and are handled with machines.

There are more than 3 million milk cows in this region about 15 percent of the total in the United States. The value of dairy products makes up an even higher proportion of the Nation's total, 26 percent.

Hay and pasture crops, so necessary for milk production, are relatively more important in the Northeast than in the Nation as a whole. Corn and wheat, on the other hand, are not so widely grown as in other parts of the country.

The Northeast includes between 5 and 6 percent of the land area of the United States. Included in the region are the New England States, New York, all but three counties in Pennsylvania, parts or all of 17 counties in northeastern Ohio, 9 counties in the northern Piedmont section of Maryland, the northwestern one-third of New Jersey, parts or all of 7 counties in Virginia, and Preston County in West Virginia.

The average annual temperature varies from somewhat less than 40 F. in northern Maine and the mountainous sections of Vermont, New Hampshire, and New York, to about 55 in southern Maryland and northern Virginia. Average January temperatures are as low as 10 in northern Maine and 16 in the Adirondacks of New York and as high as 30 in southern Maryland and northern Virginia.

In the northern part, as well as in the areas of higher altitude, the summers are cool. The average daily July temperature in Aroostook County in Maine, for example, is 65 . The average maximum July temperature in northern Maryland and southeastern Pennsylvania is about 76 .

The average annual frost-free growing season in the Adirondack section of New York and the upland areas in northern New England is 90 to 120 days. It exceeds 200 days in southeastern Pennsylvania and along such large bodies of water as Lake Erie and the Atlantic Ocean. In the upland areas of New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and West Virginia, the growing season is 140 to 160 days. Farther south it often is 200 days or longer. . Rainfall in the Northeast generally is 25 to 45 inches a year. Average annual rainfall in excess of 56 inches occurs in Middlesex County in Connecticut. As little as 28 inches falls in western New York.

The seasonal distribution of the rainfall is especially good for growing crops. Slightly more than half of the total precipitation generally falls in spring and summer. The rainfall in the growing season (April to October) varies from 18 inches in west-central New York to more than 30 inches in Coos County, N. H.

The average annual snowfall in Franklin County, in northern New York, is more than 150 inches. It is more than 100 inches in northern Maine and less than 20 inches in the northern Piedmont areas of Maryland and Virginia.

The sunshine is ample for grassland agriculture. Full sunshine occurs during 55 to 65 percent of the daylight hours in the summer months an average of 8 to 9 hours of sunshine daily in June, July, and August.

The Northeastern region topographically has four major divisions mountainous, upland plateau, lowland plain, and ridge and valley.

Much of the mountainous areas the Adirondacks of northern New York, the Green Mountains of Vermont and Massachusetts, and part of the White Mountains of New Hampshire and Maine are largely nonagricultural. A considerable part of three other mountainous areas the Catskills in southeastern New York, the Allegheny Mountains in Pennsylvania, and the Taconic Mountains bordering Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York have valleys and gentler slopes that are cultivated as small farms. The steeper slopes are woodlands.

The upland plateau includes most of the inland, non-mountainous areas of New England and the northern Piedmont area of northwestern New Jersey, southeastern Pennsylvania, central Maryland, and northern Virginia. Also included is the Allegheny Plateau, which makes up most of southern and central New York, northern and southwestern Pennsylvania, and northeastern Ohio. The northern part of this plateau was disturbed by glaciation.

The three major lowland areas are the seaboard lowland in the New England States, the Mohawk River Valley in New York, and the so-called lake plain area of western New York, northwestern Pennsylvania, and northern Ohio.

The ridge and valley division is small but important. It is made up of a series of parallel ridges separated by narrow, fertile valleys. It runs from south-central Pennsylvania northeastward to the Hudson River and includes the Hudson River Valley in New York.

THE SOILS came from parent material that varied from hard, crystalline rocks to lake-plain sands and clays. Most of the region was visited by glaciers from the north. They mixed older soils with various kinds of rocks, such as sandstone, shales, limestones, and clays. The southern part, including Maryland, Virginia, and southern Pennsylvania, have not been glaciated, and the soils are older and more weathered.

The soils of the Northeast are in five major groups: Podzols; Brown Podzolics and Weak Podzols; Gray-Brown Podzolics; Red-Yellow Podzolics; and Hydromorphic soils. The first four occur on well-drained areas. Soils in the the last group have poor or impeded drainage.

The Podzols are in northern Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont and in the higher mountainous sections, especially in New York and Massachusetts. They are highly acid. On their surface in the natural state, organic matter accumulates. It occurs over a gray-white, infertile, sandy layer, which is characteristic of the soils. Podzols, properly fertilized and limed, are good vegetable soils, although their sandy texture makes them somewhat droughty.

The Brown Podzolic soils lie to the south of the Podzols in New England and occur along with weak Podzols in the plateau areas of New York. They also are quite acid. They are generally somewhat heavier in texture than the Podzols, silt loams, and loams dominating the area. The Brown Podzolic soils are somewhat more fertile than the Podzols, but they are quite deficient in lime and phosphorus. The surface horizons are fairly high in organic matter, but because of their acidity the nutrients held in the organic form are released slowly for plant growth.