LOCATION BARNSTABLE MAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy over sandy or sandy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Barnstable sandy loam in a wooded area. (Colors are for moist soils)
0e--0 to 2 inches; hemic material composed of partially and well decomposed pine needles, leaves and twigs.
E--2 to 3 inches; dark gray (10YR 4/1) sandy loam; massive; very friable; common fine and very fine roots; 5 percent gravel, 5 percent cobbles; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 5 inches thick)
Bs--3 to 4 inches; dark brown (7.5YR 4/2) sandy loam; massive; friable; common fine and medium roots; 5 percent gravel, 5 percent cobbles; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 5 inches thick)
Bw1--4 to 11 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) sandy loam; massive; friable; common fine and medium roots; 5 percent gravel, 5 percent cobbles; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (5 to 20 inches thick)
Bw2--11 to 24 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) sandy loam; massive; friable; few fine and medium roots; 5 percent gravel very strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 20 inches thick)
2C--24 to 65 inches; light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) coarse sand; single grain; loose; 5 percent gravel; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Barnstable County, Massachusetts; Town of Sandwich, about 3000 feet west of the intersection of Rt. 6 and Water Street (Interchange 2), and about 600 feet south in woods and just south of unnamed dirt road. Lat. 41 degrees 44 minutes 22 seconds N., long. 70 degrees 30 minutes 17 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of solum ranges from 18 to 25 inches and corresponds closely to the depth to outwash. Rock fragment content consists of 5 to 20 percent gravel and 0 to 5 percent cobbles in the solum. Stones and boulders are 0 to 20 percent in the surface and 0 to 10 percent in the subsoil. Gravel content is 0 to 30 percent, cobbles 0 to 5 percent and stones 0 to 10 percent in the substratum. Reaction ranges from extremely acid through moderately acid.
The A horizons have hue of 10YR, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 1 to 3. Texture is loam, fine sandy loam, sandy loam, or coarse sandy loam.
The E horizon has hue of 10YR and 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6 and chroma of 1 or 2. Texture is fine sandy loam, sandy loam, coarse sandy loam, loamy sand, or loamy coarse sand.
The upper part of the B horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 to 5 and chroma of 2 to 6. Texture is fine sandy loam, sandy loam or coarse sandy loam. The lower part of the B horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 6. Texture in the lower part of the B is sandy loam, coarse sandy loam, loamy sand or loamy coarse sand.
The 2C horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 5 to 7 and chroma of 2 to 6. Texture is loamy sand, loamy coarse sand, sand or coarse sand.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no series in the same family at this time. Agawam, Branford, Canton, Haven, Narragansett, and Newfields may be competing series after they are assigned a cation exchange activity class. These are similar soils but none of these series formed in glacial till over outwash.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Barnstable soils are nearly level to steep soils on moraines. Slope ranges from 0 to 35 percent. The soils formed in loamy glacial till over loose, sandy, or reworked outwash. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 35 to 50 inches and mean annual air temperature is 45 to 50 degrees F. Mean frost-free season is about 145 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Canton series and the Carver, Eastchop, Merrimac, Plymouth, Sudbury, Hinckley and Nantucket soils. Canton soils have substrata of sandy glacial till. Carver, Eastchop, and Plymouth soils are sandy throughout. Hinckley soils are sandy skeletal. Merrimac soils do not have a contrasting particle-size class. Nantucket soils are loamy throughout and have dense till substrata.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderately rapid in the solum and rapid or very rapid in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly forested with poor quality scarlet, black and white oaks and pitch pine. Essentially none is used for crops or pasture. Some areas are in urban uses.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Only known to be in Barnstable and Plymouth Counties, Massachusetts (MLRA 149B). The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Barnstable County, Massachusetts, 1984.
REMARKS: 1. Classification changed from sandy to coarse-loamy over sandy or sandy skeletal. 2. These soils have previously been included with the Canton series in mapping.
3. Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the mineral soil surface to a depth of 3 inches (E horizon).
b. Cambic horizon - the zone from 3 to 24 inches (Bs, Bw1, and Bw2 horizons).
c. Contrasting particle-size class - both the coarse-loamy part and the sandy part of the particle-size control section are greater than 12.5 cm (5 in) thick and the transition zone between the two parts is less than 12.5 cm thick.