LOCATION SCHUYLER NYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, mesic Aquic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Schuyler silt loam, on a 10 percent slope in a second- growth woodland. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap-- 0 to 9 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) silt loam, light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) dry; strong medium granular structure; friable; many roots; 10 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick.)
Bw1-- 9 to 14 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) silt loam; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; friable; many roots; 5 percent rock fragments; very strongly acid; clear smooth boundary.
Bw2-- 14 to 22 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silt loam; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common roots; common medium distinct light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) areas of iron depletion and faint yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) masses of iron accumulation within the matrix; 10 percent rock fragments; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw3-- 22 to 30 inches; olive (5Y 5/3) channery heavy silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; few roots; common coarse prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation and common coarse faint light olive gray (5Y 6/2) areas of iron depletion; 30 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 14 to 42 inches.)
BC-- 30 to 38 inches; olive gray (5Y 5/2) very channery heavy silt loam; very weak coarse granular structure; firm; few roots; few medium prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation; 45 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 12 inches thick.)
C-- 38 to 72 inches; olive gray (5Y 5/2) very channery silt loam; massive; firm; common medium prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation; 55 percent rock fragments; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Schuyler County, New York; Town of Orange, 1/4 mile east of Yawger Road, 50 feet north of Goundry Hill Road. USGS Bradford, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 20 minutes, 31seconds N. and Longitude 77 degrees, 05 minutes, 38 seconds W. NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 20 to 48 inches. Bedrock is deeper than 60 inches. Rock fragments range from 5 to 35 percent in the upper part of the mineral solum and from 20 to 60 percent in the lower part of the solum and substratum, and include flagstones and coarse channery fragments which range from 0 to 10 percent in the A horizon and 5 to 15 percent in the B and C horizons. The soil ranges from extremely acid to moderately acid.
The Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 2 through 5, and chroma of 1 through 3. It ranges from silt loam to fine sandy loam in the fine earth fraction. It has weak to strong, medium or fine granular or subangular blocky structure. Consistence is very friable or friable. In unplowed areas, A horizons or O horizons are 1 to 4 inches thick.
Bw or Bg horizons have hue of 7.5YR through 5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 2 through 6, and have both low and high chroma redoximorphic features at depths of less than 24 inches. Texture is silt loam, loam or light silty clay loam in the fine earth fraction. They have weak or moderate, fine to coarse subangular blocky or granular structure. Consistence ranges from very friable to firm.
BC horizons differ from Bw horizons in having weaker structure, chroma as low as 1, and textures ranging to very channery or very gravelly analogues.
C horizons have hue of 7.5YR through 5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 1 through 4. Texture is silt loam, loam, or silty clay loam in the fine earth fraction. The material has plate like divisions, or the horizon is massive.
COMPETING SERIES: The Towerville series are members of the same family. Towerville soils are moderately deep to bedrock.
Fremont, Hornell, Ischua, and Orpark are in related families. Fremont, Hornell, and Orpark have an aquic moisture regime. Additionally, Hornell and Orpark soils have shale bedrock at a depth of less than 40 inches. Ischua is in the frigid temperature regime and is moderately deep to bedrock.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Schuyler soils are sloping to steep soils on landforms mantled with till derived largely from shale with some siltstone and fine-grained sandstone. Slope ranges from 3 to 50 percent. Mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 50 degrees F; mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 45 inches; and mean growing season is from 110 to 160 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Ashville, Bath, Busti, Chadakoin, Chautauqua, Chenango, Fremont, Hornell, Howard, Langford, Mardin, Marilla, Orpark and Towerville soils. The somewhat poorly drained Fremont and poorly drained Ashville soils are in a drainage sequence with Schuyler soils. Chenango and Howard soils formed in glacio-fluvial materials. Bath, Langford, Mardin, and Marilla soils have fragipans. Busti, Chadakoin and Chautauqua soils are coarse-loamy within the control section. Hornell, Orpark and Towerville soils are less than 40 inches deep to bedrock and Hornell and Orpark have aquic moisture regimes.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is medium to high and internal drainage is medium to slow. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the mineral surface and subsoil and moderately low or moderately high in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Cleared areas are used for growing small grains, hay, and pasture. A significant acreage has reverted to woodland. Native vegetation is sugar and red maple, red and white oak, hickory, white ash, black cherry, white pine and hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southwestern New York and possibly north-western Pennsylvania. MLRA's 139 and 140. The series is estimated to be of moderate extent.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Schuyler County, New York, 1976.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface to 9 inches (Ap horizon).
b. Cambic horizon - the zone from 9 inches to 30 inches (Bw1, Bw2, and Bw3 horizons).
c. Aquic subgroup - redoximorphic features with chroma of 2 within 24 inches of the soil surface (Bw2 and Bw3 horizon).