LOCATION VALOIS                  NY+NJ PA

Established Series
Rev. JDV-WEH-STS
02/2012

VALOIS SERIES


The Valois series consists of very deep, well drained soils on nearly level to steep lateral moraines along lower valley sides. They formed in till dominated by sandstone, siltstone, or shale. Slope ranges from 0 to 60 percent. Mean annual temperature is 48 degrees F. and mean annual precipitation is 38 inches.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Dystrudepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Valois gravelly loam, on a 6 percent slope in a cultivated field. (Colors refer to moist soil).

Ap -- 0 to 7 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) gravelly loam, light yellowish brown (10YR 6/4) dry; weak medium granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; 15 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick.)

Bw1 -- 7 to 30 inches; strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) gravelly loam; weak fine granular structure; very friable; common fine roots; 25 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.

Bw2 -- 30 to 47 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) gravelly silt loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; 20 percent rock fragments; fragments of rock and few cobbles; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizons is 20 to 60 inches.)

2C -- 47 to 72 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) very gravelly fine sandy loam; 10 percent gravelly silt loam and gravelly clay loam in lenses and pockets; massive, weakly stratified; friable; clay coats around some pebbles in clay loam pockets; 40 percent rock fragments; few fine faint yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) masses of iron accumulation in finer textured pockets; slightly acid.

TYPE LOCATION: Chemung County, New York; Town of Catlin, 1000 feet east of the junction of DeMunn and Sturdivent Roads; 800 feet south of Sturdivent Road. USGS Beaver Dams, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 17 minutes, 9 seconds N. and Longitude 76 degrees, 55 minutes, 27 seconds W. NAD 1927. Elevation 1470 feet AMS.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of solum ranges from 30 to 70 inches. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Rock fragments range from 5 to 35 percent by volume above a depth of 20 inches, and from 15 to 40 percent in the solum below 20 inches. The weighted average must be less than 35 percent above 40 inches. Contrasting layers containing 35 to 70 percent rock fragments are common below 40 inches. Rock fragments are mostly fine gravel, gravel and cobbles.

The Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 2 through 5, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture is sandy loam, fine sandy loam, very fine sandy loam, loam or silt loam in the fine-earth fraction. Structure is weak or moderate granular. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to moderately acid, unless limed. In wooded areas the soil has a A and/or O horizon with value ranging as low as 2, chroma ranging as low as 1 and in some pedons with neutral hue.

The E horizon, if present, has hue of 7.5YR or 10 YR, value of 4 to 7 and chroma of 2,3, or 4. Texture of the fine earth fraction is sandy loam, fine sandy loam, very fine sandy loam, silt loam, or loam. Structure is weak or moderate granular or subanglar blocky. Reaction ranges from extremely acid to moderately acid.

The B horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5 and chroma of 3 through 6. Texture ranges from sandy loam through silt loam in the fine-earth fraction. Structure is weak or moderate granular or subangular blocky, and consistence is friable or very friable. Below a depth ranging from 20 to 40 inches and including a thickness ranging from as little as 6 to as much as 36 inches, some pedons have slight evidence of clay segregation as linings in pores and patchy clay films on pebbles, and layers or bodies of darker color and greater coherence than described for the B horizon. This part is not an argillic horizon. Soil acidity increases as depth increases within most such layers, and it is less than 6.0 above a depth of 30 inches. Some pedons have a BC horizon.

The C or 2C horizon has hue that ranges from 2.5Y through 7.5YR, value of 3 through 5 and chroma of 2 through 6. Texture is sandy loam, fine sandy loam or loam, but pockets or lens range from loamy sand to silty clay loam in the fine-earth fraction. Structure is granular or platy or the horizon is massive or single grain. Consistence is very friable to firm, or it is loose. Some pedons may have redoximorphic features. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to neutral at depths above 6 feet. Weak stratification is common in most pedons.

COMPETING SERIES: The Chadakoin, Chatfield, and Maplecrest series in the same family. Chadakoin soils lack weak stratification in the substratum. Chatfield soils are 20 to 40 inches deep to bedrock. Maplecrest soils have 5YR or redder hue in the B horizon.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Valois soils are typically on complex slopes characteristic of end or lateral moraines. Some landforms are congeliturbate covered or till covered valley terraces. Slope ranges from 0 to 60 percent. They formed in till dominated by material from sandstone and siltstone or shale with some slate or phyllite and typically have a small component of material from calcareous rocks. The till commonly is calcareous at depths greater than 12 feet. Fluvial sorting in the substratum commonly results in weak stratification. Mean annual temperature ranges from 46 to 50 degrees F., mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 45 inches, and mean annual frost-free days ranges from 120 to 180 days. Elevation ranges from 600 to 1800 feet above sea level.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are most commonly the Bath, Langford, and Mardin soils that have fragipans and formed in nearby upland ground moraines. Chenango and Howard soils are on adjacent gravelly outwash terraces, and Arkport and Dunkirk soils are in nearby lake sediment deposits.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. The potential for surface runoff is negligible to very high. Permeability is moderate to rapid. The rooting zone is rarely saturated during the growing season.

USE AND VEGETATION: Most nearly level to rolling areas are cleared and used for growing hay, pasture, corn or small grains. Woodlots include sugar maple, American beech, red oak, and similar hardwoods.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciated Allegheny Plateau of New York and Pennsylvania, and locally in the Hudson Valley and Mohawk Valley of New York. MLRA 101, 140, and 144A. The series is moderately extensive.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Schuyler County, New York, 1939.

REMARKS: The Valois series was classified in the Sols Bruns Acides great soil group in the 1938 classification system and classified as a Dystrochrept before the 8th Edition of The Keys to Soil Taxonomy. The Valois series formerly included weakly expressed Glossoboric Hapludalfs which are now considered within the range of the Madrid series.

Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon are:
1. Ochric Epipedon - the zone from surface to 7 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 7 to 47 inches (Bw horizons).
3. Udic soil moisture regime (a humid, temperate climate).

Data is available for 4 pedons; the CEC activity class is based on data from 1 pedon from Sullivan County, NY.


National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.