LOCATION BALLTOWN           MO

BALLTOWN SERIES

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, thermic Lithic Hapludolls

TYPICAL PEDON: Balltown very flaggy silty clay loam - on a 14 percent slope in pasture. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)

A--0 to 10 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) very flaggy silty clay loam; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) dry; moderate fine granular structure; friable; many fine roots; 50 percent limestone fragments; slightly effervescent; mildly alkaline; clear smooth boundary. (5 to 12 inches thick)

C--10 to 16 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) extremely flaggy silty clay loam; brown (10YR 5/3) dry; weak fine subangular blocky structure; firm; few roots; 80 percent limestone fragments; strongly effervescent; mildly alkaline; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick)

R--16 inches; gray (10YR 6/1) limestone bedrock.

TYPE LOCATION: Vernon County, Missouri; about 3 miles north and 3 miles west of Stotesbury; 660 feet east and 40 feet south of the northwest corner, sec. 7, T. 37 N., R 33 W.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Coarse fragments in the profile range from 35 to 80 percent with 10 to 25 percent less than 3 inches. It is slightly acid to moderately alkaline. Depth to bedrock is 4 to 20 inches.

The A horizon and C horizon have hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 2 or 3, 4 or 5 dry and chroma of 1 to 3. They are very flaggy or extremely flaggy analogues of silty clay loam or silt loam.

COMPETING SERIES: There are no other series in the same family. Competing series in other families are the Collinsville, Moko, and Shidler series. Collinsville soils are loamy and siliceous. Moko soils are mesic. Shidler soils have less than 35 percent by volume coarse fragments.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Balltown soils are on uplands and formed in residuum from limestone. Slopes range from 3 to 25 percent. The mean annual temperature ranges from 59 to 62 degrees F, and mean annual precipitation ranges from 37 to 42 inches.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Clareson, Eram, Lula, and Zaar series. These soils commonly are upslope and are deeper to bedrock than the Balltown series.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained. Runoff is medium to very rapid. Permeability is moderate.

USE AND VEGETATION: These soils mostly are used as pasture, but many areas have grown up in brush. Native vegetation is tall prairie grass.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southwestern Missouri. The series is of small extent.

MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Salina, Kansas

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Vernon County, Missouri, 1974.

REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this series are: mollic epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 10 inches (A horizon); lithic contact at 16 inches; udic soil moisture regime.