LOCATION BONAPARTE          NY
Established Series
Rev. MGC-FLG-ERS
2/98

BONAPARTE SERIES


The Bonaparte series consists of very deep, excessively drained soils formed in water-sorted materials on outwash kames, terraces, and eskers. Slopes range from 0 to 45 percent. The mean annual temperature is 48 degrees F. and the mean annual precipitation is 35 inches.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy-skeletal, mixed, mesic Typic Udorthents

TYPICAL PEDON: Bonaparte gravelly loamy fine sand - in a pasture (Colors refer to moist broken soil.)

Ap--0 to 5 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) gravelly loamy fine sand; weak fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; many fine pores; 20 percent pebbles; slightly acid; clear smooth boundary. (5 to 9 inches thick)

B1--5 to 20 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/4) gravelly loamy fine sand; weak very fine granular structure; very friable; common fine roots; many fine pores; 25 percent pebbles; slightly acid;clear wavy boundary. (10 to 20 inches thick)

B2--20 to 26 inches; dark brown to brown (7.5YR 4/4) gravelly loamy fine sand; very weak fine granular structure; very friable; few roots; many fine pores; 35 percent pebbles; bridging of organic material and clay among sand grains in 30 percent of the matrix; neutral; clear irregular boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick)

2C--26 to 72 inches; brown (7.5YR 5/2), grayish brown (10YR 5/2), dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2), and white (10YR 8/2) cross-bedded layers of sand and 50 percent pebbles; moderately alkaline; strongly effervescent. White material is calcite.

TYPE LOCATION: Jefferson County, New York. Gravel pit on the west side of Highway 11, 1.44 mi. southwest of St. Lawrence County line. USGS Natural Dam, NY topographic quadrangle; latitude 44 degrees, 15 minutes, 21 seconds N. and longitude 75 dgrees, 35 minutes, 2 seconds W. NAD 1927.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of solum and depth to carbonates range from 16 to 35 inches. Rock fragments, mostly pebbles and cobbles, range from 0 to 35 percent in the A horizon, 35 to 60 percent in the B horizon, and 40 to 70 percent in the C horizon. Unless limed, reaction ranges from strongly acid through neutral in the solum and slightly alkaline or moderately alkaline in the 2C horizon. Some pedons have neutral, noncalcareous C horizons.

The Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5 and chroma of 2. Texture of the fine-earth fraction ranges from fine sandy loam through loamy sand. Structure is weak or moderate granular. Undisturbed areas have an A horizon up to 5 inches thick, which have properties within the range described for the Ap horizon.

The B horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 4 through 6. Higher values are more common in the upper part of the B horizon. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is loamy sand or loamy fine sand. In some pedons thin subhorizons are sand and lack pebbles. Consistence is friable or very friable. The pH is 6.5 or more at the contact with the C horizon.

The C horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 4 through 8 and chroma of 2 through 8. Texture is very gravelly or very cobbly sand, or it is stratified sand and pebbles.

COMPETING SERIES: The Gravesend (T), Hinckley, Manchester, Mecosta, Multorpor, Otisville, Quonset, and Riker (T) series are members of the same family. Gravesend (T) and Riker (T) do not have an OSD on file to check for contrasting characteristics. Hinckley, Manchester and Otisville are moderately acid or more strongly acid in the C horizon and, in addition, Manchester soils have 5YR or redder hues throughout. Mecosta soils have a texture of the fine-earth fraction that is dominatly sand in the solum. Multorpor soils lack B horizons and have chroma of 2 or less below the A horizon. Quonset soils lack free carbonates in the C and are dominated by slate, shale and phyllite.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Bonaparte soils are nearly level to very steep soils on glacial outwash terraces, kames, and eskers where the coarse material has been derived mainly from limestone and marble. Slopes range from 0 to 35 percent. Mean annual air temperature ranges from 45 to 50 degrees F.; mean annual precipitation, from 30 to 40 inches; mean annual frost-free period, from 130 to 165 days. Elevation ranges from 400 to 1500 feet above sea level.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Charlton, Dover, Hinckley and Windsor soils. Charlton and Dover and associated soils are common on till of associated uplands. Hickley and Windsor soils are on acid outwash or sandy deltaic deposits in the same region.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Excessively drained. Runoff is slow to medium. Permeability is moderately rapid or rapid in the surface layer, rapid in the subsoil, and rapid or very rapid in the substratum.

USE AND VEGETATION: Cleared areas are idle or are used mainly to grow pasture. Limited areas are used to grow hay. Native vegetation consists of sugar maple, basswood, hop hornbeam, other hardwoods, and eastern white pine.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Borders of the Adirondack Mountains of New York. The series may occur in New England. MLRA 142 and 141. The series is inextensive.

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

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Lewis County, New York, 1956. Named for Lake Bonaparte, Lewis County, New York.

REMARKS: The diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon are:
1) Ochric epipedon - from 0 to 5 inches.
2) B horizon is not a cambic because of the coarse textures.

Soil Interpretation Record No.: NY0190


National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.