LOCATION BEVERLY WAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy-skeletal, mixed, mesic Xeric Torrifluvents
TYPICAL PEDON: Beverly cobbly fine sandy loam, irrigated cherry orchard. (Colors are for dry soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap--0 to 5 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) cobbly fine sandy loam, very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) moist; weak medium granular structure; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; many fine roots; few fine tubular pores; 15 percent cobbles and 5 percent pebbles; slightly alkaline (pH 7.4); clear smooth boundary. (4 to 6 inches thick)
C1--5 to 14 inches; stratified light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) and grayish brown (10YR 5/2) gravelly fine sandy loam, dark brown (10YR 3/3) and very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) moist; massive; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; common fine roots; few fine tubular pores; 15 percent pebbles and 5 percent cobbles; slightly alkaline (pH 7.6); clear smooth boundary. (6 to 10 inches thick)
C2--14 to 20 inches; pale brown (10YR 6/3) very gravelly sandy loam, dark brown (10YR 4/3) moist; massive; soft, very friable, nonsticky and nonplastic; few fine roots; few fine tubular pores; 35 percent pebbles and 15 percent cobbles; few thin grayish brown (10YR 5/2), very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) moist strata; slightly alkaline (pH 7.6); clear smooth boundary. (4 to 10 inches thick)
2C3--20 to 60 inches; multicolored extremely gravelly loamy coarse sand; single grained; loose, nonsticky and nonplastic; 70 percent pebbles, 10 percent cobbles and 5 percent stones; slightly alkaline (pH 7.6).
TYPE LOCATION: Douglas County, Washington; one-half mile north of Orondo, Washington; 1,320 feet north and 400 feet west of southeast corner of sec. 29, T. 25 N. R. 21 E.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The mean annual soil temperature is about 50 to 54 degrees F. The moisture control section is usually dry but is moist for more than 1/4 the time the soil temperature exceeds 41 degrees F. The soil is neutral or slightly alkaline throughout. Depth to the 2C horizon is 14 to 25 inches.
The A horizon has value of 4 or 5 dry and chroma of 2 through 4 dry or moist.
The upper part of the C horizon has value of 4 through 6 dry, 2 through 4 moist and chroma of 2 through 4 moist and dry. It is stratified and averages sandy loam or fine sandy loam that is gravelly or very gravelly; or is gravelly loamy sand.
The 2C horizon ranges widely in color. It is sand, loamy sand, or loamy coarse sand and has 40 to 90 percent rock fragments. (Some thin lenses have less pebbles.)
COMPETING SERIES: There are no competing series.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Beverly soils are on low terraces and fans and have slopes of 0 to 25 percent. They formed in recent gravelly and cobbly mixed alluvium. Elevations are 600 to 1800 feet. The climate is semiarid and has hot dry summers and moist, cold winters. Mean annual precipitation is 8 to 12 inches. Average January temperature is 23 to 25 degrees F.; average July temperature is 70 to 75 degrees F; and the mean annual temperature is about 50 degrees F. The frost-free season is about 140 to 190 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Aeneas, Cashmere, Cashmont, Malott, Peshastin, Pogue, Skaha and Strat soils and the competing Malaga soils. All of these soils except the Skaha soils have a mollic epipedon. Skaha soils have a regular decrease in organic carbon with depth.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Somewhat excessively drained; very slow or slow runoff; moderately rapid permeability to about 20 inches, very rapid below. These soils have a rare to occasional flooding hazard mostly in the early spring runoff period.
USE AND VEGETATION: Used mainly for irrigated orchards or irrigated hay and pasture. Some areas are used for rangeland grazing. Native vegetation is bluebunch wheatgrass, needleandthread, big sagebrush, Sandberg bluegrass, hood phlox, snow eriogonum, antelope bitterbrush, silky lupine, and gray rabbitbrush.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Eastern Washington. It is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Portland, Oregon
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Grant County, Washington, 1913.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizon and features recognized in this pedon are an ochric epipedon from the surface to 5 inches and a particle-size control section from 10 to 40 inches that has an irregular decrease in organic carbon and averages less than 10 percent clay and more than 85 percent sand with 69 percent rock fragments.