LOCATION PAXTON             CT +MA NH NY RI VT 

PAXTON SERIES

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Dystrudepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Paxton fine sandy loam - in a brushy field at an elevation of about 850 feet. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)

Ap--0 to 8 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) fine sandy loam, pale brown (10YR 6/3) dry; moderate medium granular structure; friable; many fine roots; 5 percent gravel; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 10 inches thick)

Bw1--8 to 15 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) fine sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; 5 percent gravel; few earthworm casts; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary.

Bw2--15 to 26 inches, olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) fine sandy loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; 10 percent gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 15 to 37 inches.)

Cd--26 to 65 inches; olive (5Y 5/3) gravelly fine sandy loam; moderate thick plates; very firm, brittle; 25 percent gravel; many dark coatings on plates; strongly acid.

TYPE LOCATION: New Haven County, Connecticut; town of Prospect, 0.4 mile east of Straitsville Road and 0.5 mile north of the Bethany - Prospect town line; USGS Mount Carmel topographic quadrangle; latitude 41 degrees 28 minutes 34 seconds N., longitude 72 degrees 59 minutes 16 seconds W., NAD 27

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum commonly ranges from 20 to 40 inches. The depth to the densic contact and material is commonly 20 to 40 inches but the range includes 18 to 40 inches. Depth to bedrock is commonly more than 6 feet. Rock fragments range from 5 to 35 percent by volume. Except where the surface is stony, the fragments are mostly subrounded gravel and typically make up 60 percent or more of the total rock fragments. Unless limed, reaction ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid.

The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 to 4. Dry value is 6 or more. Undisturbed pedons have a thin A horizon with value of 2 or 3 and chroma of 1 or 2. The Ap or A horizon is loam, fine sandy loam, or sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. It commonly has weak or moderate granular structure and is friable or very friable.

Some pedons have a thin E horizon below the A horizon. It has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 3. Texture, structure, and consistence are like the A horizon.

The upper part of the Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 8. The lower part of the Bw horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 3 to 6. Some pedons have few faint redoximorphic features just above the Cd horizon. The Bw horizon is loam, fine sandy loam, or sandy loam with less than 65 percent silt plus very fine sand. It has weak granular or subangular blocky structure, or it is massive. Consistence is friable or very friable.

Some pedons have a thin BC horizon with value and chroma like the lower part of the B horizon, but is typically one hue yellower. The BC horizon has texture, structure, and consistence like the B horizon.

Some pedons have an E or E' horizon up to 3 inches thick below the B horizon. It has hue of 10YR to 5Y, value of 5 or 6, and chroma of 2 or 3. Typically, it is coarser textured than the overlying horizon.

The Cd layer has hue of 10YR to 5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 2 to 4. In some pedons there are a few faint or distinct iron depletions or masses of iron accumulation in the upper part. Texture is loam, fine sandy loam, sandy loam, or coarse sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. A few thin lenses of loamy sand are in some pedons. The structure is geogenetically derived, appearing in the form of weak or moderate, medium to very thick plates, or it is massive. Consistence is firm or very firm. Some pedons have a friable C horizon above the Cd horizon.

COMPETING SERIES: The Amostown, Bernardston, Broadbrook, Horseneck, Nantucket, Scituate and Wethersfield series are currently in the same family. Amostown soils are underlain by stratified very fine sand or silt within a depth of 40 inches. Bernardston and Broadbrook soils have a solum with more than 65 percent silt plus very fine sand. Horseneck soils lack a densic contact. Nantucket soils have a lithologic discontinuity. Scituate soils have sandy substrata. Wethersfield soils have 5YR or redder hue in the B and C horizons.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Paxton soils are nearly level to steep and are on till plains, hills, and drumlins. Slope commonly is 0 to 35 percent but ranges from 0 to 45 percent in some pedons. The soils formed in acid subglacial till derived mostly from schist, gneiss, and granite. Mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 52 degrees F., mean annual precipitation ranges from 37 to 49 inches, and the growing season ranges from 115 to 180 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Bernardston, Broadbrook, and Scituate soils and the Canton, Charlton, Chatfield, Georgia, Hollis, Leicester, Montauk, Narragansett, Pittstown, Ridgebury, Stockbridge,
Sutton, Wapping, Whitman, and Woodbridge soils on nearby landscapes. The
moderately well drained Woodbridge, poorly drained Ridgebury, and the very
poorly drained Whitman soils are associated in a drainage sequence. Canton
soils have a friable loamy sand substratum. Well drained Stockbridge and
moderately well drained Georgia soils have higher base status. Hollis soils have
bedrock within a depth of 10 to 20 inches. Leicester soils are poorly drained
and do not have a dense substratum. Montauk soils have sandy substrata.
Narragansett soils have a lithologic discontinuity within a depth of 40 inches
and a solum high in silt and very fine sand. Sutton and Wapping soils are
moderately well drained and do not have a dense substratum.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Surface runoff is negligible to high. Permeability is moderate in the solum and slow or very slow in the substratum. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the solum and
Low to moderately high in the substratum.

USE AND VEGETATION: Many areas are cleared and used for cultivated crops, hay, or pasture. Scattered areas are used for community development. Some areas are wooded. Common trees are red, white, and black oak, hickory, sugar maple, red maple, gray and black birch, white pine, and hemlock.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciated uplands in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, eastern New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont; MLRAs 144A, 145, and 149B. The Paxton series was previously used in some surveys in Maine. Maine has determined from soil temperature studies that the mesic soil temperature regime will no longer be used. The series is of large extent.

MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Worcester County, Massachusetts, 1922.

REMARKS: Paxton is the state soil of Massachusetts.

Cation exchange activity class placement determined from a review of limited lab data and similar or associated soils. Paxton soils were previously classified as Typic Dystrochrepts, and before that as Typic Fragiochrepts.

Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon include:

1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 8 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 8 to 26 inches (Bw horizon).
3. Dense till material - the zone from 26 to 65 inches (Cd horizon).
4. Oxyaquic subgroup based on saturation in one or more layers within 100 cm of the mineral surface, for one month or more per year, in 6 out of 10 years.