Chenango County is located in the south central region of New York State. It is composed of 908 square miles or 581,120 acres. The county is in the glaciated Allegheny Plateaus were most of the soils are suited to and used for dairy farming with other land uses such as woodland and wildlife management. One of the major farming limitations in the county is poor soil drainage and steep slopes. Despite the relative steepness, the major stream valleys are fairly broad where most of the major prime agricultural soils are found. Elevations range from 880 feet above sea level to a high of 1,960 feet above sea level. Outside the Adirondack and Catskill Mountain Ranges, the elevation of the county is fairly high. Chenango County was once covered and uncovered by several advances and retreats of glacial ice. 

The first ice sheet covered the area about 300,000 years ago and the last retreat occurred 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. The glacial advances caused different soil formations, the most predominant being glacial till. Till is a heterogeneous mixture of soil material, bedrock, minerals, and other particles that are directly deposited by glaciers. These formations can be

Source: USDA. Soil Conservation Service., Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station. Soil Survey of Chenango County, New York. State of New York, 1985.

Major Watersheds of Chenango County

Over 98% of the county's surface waters drain into the Chesapeake Bay through three major sub-basins; the Chenango, Otselic, and the Unadilla. The Susquehanna River meanders fifteen miles through the south eastern part of the county. The Unadilla River meets the Susquehanna just outside of Chenango County on the eastern border. The Otselic River flows through Chenango County, draining the hillsides of forests and agricultural land where it meets with the Tioughnioga River and is impounded by the Whitney Point Reservoir. The Chenango River, the largest of the sub-basins in Chenango County constitutes the bulk of the County's contribution to the Chesapeake Bay. The map to the left shows the watershed delineations of the three major sub-basins of the Susquehanna River in Chenango County.