LOCATION CASTILE NY VTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Aquic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Castile gravelly loam - cultivated (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap-- 0 to 13 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) gravelly loam; weak coarse granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; 30 percent gravel; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (7 to 16 inches thick.)
Bw1-- 13 to 18 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) very gravelly loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; many pores; 40 percent gravel; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2-- 18 to 24 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) very gravelly loam; very weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; many fine pores; 40 percent gravel; common medium faint yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) masses of iron accumulation and common medium faint gray (10YR 5/1) areas of iron depletion; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of Bw horizon is 8 to 21 inches.)
BC-- 24 to 34 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) very gravelly loam; massive; very friable; common medium and fine pores; 50 percent gravel; few faint yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) masses of iron accumulation and few faint gray (10YR 5/1) areas of iron depletion; strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 12 inches thick)
2C-- 34 to 72 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) stratified sand and gravel; loose; 60 percent gravel; moderately acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Wyoming County, New York. Town of Gainesville, one-half mile southeast of Village of Gainesville on Lamont Road; 300 feet east of Lamont Road in field. USGS Warsaw, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 38 minutes, 1 second N. and Longitude 78 degrees, 7 minutes, 38 seconds W. NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 24 through 40 inches. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Rock fragment content ranges from 15 through 30 percent in the A horizon, 20 through 60 percent in the B horizon, and 35 through 70 percent in the C horizon. Rock fragments are mainly gravel, but include up to 10 percent cobblestones and flagstones. Unless limed, the soil ranges from very strongly acid through moderately acid in the solum and strongly acid through neutral in the C horizon. Depth to carbonates range from 5 to 10 feet.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture of the fine-earth fraction ranges from sandy loam through silt loam. Structure is weak or moderate granular.
The Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, chroma of 3 or 6, and has redoximorphic features. Texture of the fine-earth fraction ranges from sandy loam through silt loam. Structure is weak or moderate granular or subangular blocky. Consistence is very friable through firm.
The BC horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. It has texture, structure, and consistence similar to the Bw horizon.
The C or 2C horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture of the fine-earth fraction ranges from loamy sand through loam or is stratified sand and gravel.
COMPETING SERIES: The Farnham series is the only series in the same family. Farnham soils have rock fragments dominated by shale.
The Alto, Braceville, Chenango, Ellington, Hoosic, Pompton, and Tunkhannock series are similar soils in related families. Alton, Chenango, Hoosic, and Tunkhannock soils lack redoximorphic depletions within a depth of 24 inches. Braceville soils have a fragipan. Ellington soils have coarse-loamy over sandy or sandy-skeletal particle-size control sections. Pompton soils have coarse-loamy particle-size control sections.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Castile soils are nearly level to undulating soils on glacial outwash plains, valley trains and associated kames, eskers and water-deposited parts of moraines. Slope ranges from 0 through 15 percent. The soils formed in water-sorted gravelly and sandy material high in gray sandstone, shale and siltstone with lesser amounts of limestone and igneous erratics. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 through 45 inches; mean annual air temperature ranges from 45 through 50 degrees F.; and the mean annual frost-free season ranges from 120 through 180 days. Elevation ranges from 500 through 1600 feet above sea-level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Alton, Atherton, Bath, Chenango, Hoosic, Lordstown, Middlebury, Red Hook, Scio, Tioga, Tunkhannock and Williamson soils. Atherton soils are poorly and very poorly drained. Bath and Lordstown soils formed in till. Middlebury and Tioga soils are on flood plains. Red Hook soils are somewhat poorly drained. Williamson soils have a fragipan.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is low. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high to high in the mineral solum and high to very high in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas have been cleared and are used for growing hay, corn, and small grains. Potatoes and other vegetable crops are grown locally. Woodlots contain red and sugar maple, American beech, ash, hemlock, black cherry, and white pine in northernmost areas; oak and hickory become more conspicuous southward.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Western, central and southern New York, and possibly northern Pennsylvania. MLRA 101, 139, 140, and 144A. The series is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Wyoming County, New York, 1969.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in the typical pedon are:
1) Ochric epipedon - from 0 and 13 inches (Ap horizon).
2) Cambic horizon - the zone from 13 to 24 inches (Bw1 & Bw2 horizons).
3) Aquic subgroup - redox depletions with chroma of 2 or less within 24 inches (Bw2 horizon- 18 to 24 inches).
4) Loamy-skeletal family particle size - rock fragment content averages more than 35 percent by volume in the 10 to 40 inch control section.