LOCATION PITTSTOWN MA+NH NY RI VTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Aquic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Pittstown loam, cultivated field. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 10 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) loam, light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) dry; moderate medium granular structure; friable; 10 percent phyllite fragments; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary.
Bw1--10 to 18 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) loam; weak medium granular structure; friable; 10 percent phyllite fragments; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary.
Bw2--18 to 29 inches; olive (5Y 4/3) channery loam; massive; friable; 15 percent phyllite fragments; common medium prominent dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) masses of iron accumulations and common medium distinct gray (5Y 5/1) iron depletions; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary.
Cd--29 to 65 inches; olive (5Y 5/3) channery loam; massive; very firm, brittle; 20 percent phyllite fragments; many coarse prominent dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) masses of iron accumulation and many coarse distinct olive gray (5Y 5/2) iron depletions; very strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Bristol County, Massachusetts; Town of Somerset, 400 feet north of Wilbur Avenue, and 900 feet east of Brayton Point Road. Fall River quadrangle: Lat. 41 degrees 43 minutes 25 seconds N. and long. 71 degrees 10 minutes 35 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 15 to 30 inches. The depth to densic materials commonly is 20 to 30 inches but the range includes 15 to 30. Depth to redoximorphic features ranges from 15 to 24 inches. The solum in the fine earth fraction is silt loam, loam, or very fine sandy loam with more than 65 percent silt plus very fine sand. Rock fragments consist of dark phyllite, slate, and schist. Rock fragments, by volume, larger than 10 inches range from 0 to 20 percent in the surface and 0 to 5 percent in the subsoil and substratum. Three to 10 inch size fragments range from 0 to 15 percent in surface, 0 to 10 percent in the subsoil and 0 to 15 percent in the substratum. Fragments less than 3 inches range from 5 to 25 percent in the surface, 5 to 25 percent in the subsoil and 15 to 30 percent in the substratum. The soil, below the A or Ap horizon and above a depth of 30 inches, is very strongly acid to moderately acid where not limed, and ranges from very strongly acid to slightly acid below a depth of 30 inches.
Unplowed areas have 0 horizons l to 4 inches thick underlain by a thin A horizon with hue of 10YR, value of 2 to 3 and chroma of l to 3.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 2 or 3. Structure is weak or moderate fine or medium granular. Consistence is friable or very friable.
Some pedons have a thin E horizon.
The upper part of the Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. The lower part of the Bw horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. Redoximorphic depletions and concentrations are few or common in the upper part of the Bw and from few to many in the lower part. Structure commonly is weak or moderate blocky but the range includes weak or moderate granular or massive. Consistence is friable or very friable.
Some pedons have a friable C horizon above the Cd horizon. It has hue of 10YR to 5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 3. Texture is similar to the Cd horizon.
The Cd horizon has hue of 10YR to 5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. It is silt loam, very fine sandy loam, or loam in the fine-earth fraction. It is firm to extremely firm. The horizon is normally massive but may have weak platy structure.
COMPETING SERIES: Currently, these are the Chautauqua, Rainbow, Sutton, Wilbraham, and Woodbridge series. Ludlow, Pompton, Wapping, and Watchaug series are similar soils in related families.
Chautauqua, Pompton, Sutton, Wapping, and Watchaug soils do not have densic materials in the substratum. Ludlow soils have hue of 5YR or redder in the Bw horizon. Rainbow soils have a lithologic discontinuity. Woodbridge soils have less than 65 percent silt and very fine sand in the B horizon. Wilbraham soils are poorly drained, but formed in reddish parent material so that they do not exhibit the low chroma matrix colors required for Aquepts.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Pittstown soils are nearly level to moderately steep soils on glaciated uplands. Slope ranges from 0 to 25 percent. The soils developed in loamy till derived principally from dark phyllite, slate, or schist. Mean annual air temperature ranges from 45 to 52 degrees F. and mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 50 inches. The frost-free period ranges from 120 to 180 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: The well drained Bernardston, poorly drained Stissing, and very poorly drained Mansfield soils are associated in a drainage sequence. The excessively drained Quonset and the somewhat excessively drained Warwick soils are on nearby outwash plains, terraces, eskers, and kames. The well drained Dutchess soils, which do not have a dense substratum, the shallow to bedrock Nassau and Kearsarge soils and the moderately deep to bedrock Cardigan soils are closely associated on the uplands.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Moderately well drained. Surface runoff is medium. Permeability is moderate in the solum and slow in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly forested. Cleared areas are used for growing hay and pasture in support of dairy farming. Principal trees are red, white and scarlet oak, red and sugar maple, gray and yellow birch, white ash, white pine, and hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciated uplands in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and eastern New York: MLRA 144A. The series is of moderate extent; estimated to be about 20,000 acres.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Sullivan County, New York, 1938.
REMARKS: Pittstown soils were previously classified as Fragiochrepts in earlier editions of Soil Taxonomy. Cation exchange activity class was determined from a review of available data and similar soils.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 10 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 10 to 29 inches (Bw1 and Bw2 horizons).
3. Densic materials (basal till) at 29 inches (Cd horizon).
4. Aquic subgroup - presence of low chroma iron depletions at 18 inches (Bw1 horizon).