LOCATION BELDEN             MS

BELDEN SERIES

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-silty, mixed, active, nonacid, thermic Aeric Fluvaquents

TYPICAL PEDON: Belden silty clay loam, 0 to 2 percent slope, cultivated.
(Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise
stated.)

Ap--0 to 8 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) silty clay loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots, slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 8 inches
thick)

Bg1--8 to 17 inches; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) clay loam;
common medium distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) mottles; weak
fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable, plastic, sticky; few fine roots; medium acid; clear smooth boundary. (8
to 12 inches thick)

Bg2--17 to 30 inches; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) silty clay
loam; many medium distinct brown (10YR 5/3) and yellowish brown
(10YR 5/6) mottles; weak medium subangular blocky structure;
friable, plastic, sticky; few fine roots; common medium black concretions; medium acid; clear smooth boundary. (12 to 20
inches thick)

Bg3--30 to 60 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) clay loam;
common fine distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) and prominent yellowish red (5YR 5/6) mottles; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable, plastic, sticky; many medium black
concretions; medium acid.

TYPE LOCATION: Chickasaw County, Mississippi; 1.5 miles
northeast of Van Vleet, on State Highway 8 and 0.15 mile
northwest into cultivated field. SE1/4SE1/4 sec. 28, T. 12. S.,
R. 4 E.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 45
to more than 60 inches.

The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2
to 4. It is silt loam, loam, very fine sandy loam, or silty clay loam. It ranges from medium acid to neutral.

The Bg1 horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and
chroma of 2; mottles, if present, are few to common in shades of brown; or the horizon is mottled in shades of brown and gray.
The Bg2 and Bg3 horizons have hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 to
6, and chroma of 1 or 2 with few to many mottles in shades of
brown and red. The B horizon is silt loam, silty clay loam,
loam, or clay loam. The particle-size control section, the 10-
to 40-inch section is 25 to 35 percent clay, 40 to 60 percent
silt, and 5 to 25 percent sand, which mostly is very fine sand.
The upper part of the B horizon is medium acid or slightly acid,
and the lower part of the B horizon ranges from medium acid to neutral. Black concretions, if present, are few to many in the B subhorizons.

COMPETING SERIES: Commerce is the only competing series.
Similar series include Arkabutla, Bruin, Keo, Marietta,
Mathiston, and series. Commerce soils have a solum ranging from
20 to 40 inches thick, and the control section is slightly acid
to moderate alkaline. Arkabutla and Mathison soils are very
strongly acid or strongly acid in the 10- to 40-inch control
section; also, Mathiston soils have siliceous mineralogy. Bruin
and Keo soils have a coarse-silty particle-size class. Marietta soils do not have a grayish matrix in the upper part of the B
horizon and have a fine-loamy particle-size class.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Belden soils are on wide flood plains of
streams that drain portions of the Southern Coastal Plain and Blackland Prairie. Slopes range for 0 to 2 percent. The soil
formed in silty and loamy alluvial sediment. The climate is warm
and humid. Mean annual precipitation is 51 inches, and mean
annual temperature is 63 degrees F. near the type location.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are Marietta and
Mathiston series of the competing series and Catalpa, Leeper, and Tuscumbia series. These soils on nearly level flood plains. Catalpa, Leeper, and Tuscumbia soils have a fine particle-size
class. Moderately well drained Catalpa soils are in slightly
higher positions. Somewhat poorly drained Leeper soils are in similar positions as the Bleden soils, and the poorly drained Tuscumbia soils are in depressions and backswamps.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat poorly drained. Slow
runoff; moderate permeability. The water table is within a depth
of 12 inches of the surface in wet seasons late in winter and
early in spring, and most areas are subject to either occasional
or frequent flooding for brief to long duration.

USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of the Belden soils are cleared
and cropped to cotton, corn, soybeans, pasture, and hay. The
native vegetation is mixed hardwoods and loblolly pine.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Mississippi. The series is of moderate extent.

MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Auburn, Alabama

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Chickasaw County, Mississippi; 1969.