LOCATION FARMINGTON NY CT MA NJ VTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy, mixed, active, mesic Lithic Eutrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Farmington silt loam, on a 3 percent slope in cultivated field (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap-- 0 to 8 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) silt loam; moderate medium and fine granular structure; friable; many fine roots; 2 percent rock fragments; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (3 to 12 inches thick.)
Bw1-- 8 to 14 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silt loam; weak medium and fine subangular blocky structure; very friable; many fine roots; brown (10YR 4/3) coats on peds; common earthworm channels; 5 percent rock fragments; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2-- 14 to 18 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) loam; common fine faint grayish brown (10YR 5/2) mottles; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; common earthworm channels; 5 percent rock fragments; slightly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizons is 4 to 16 inches.)
2R-- 18 inches; limestone bedrock; vertical joints spaced 3 to 10 feet apart are filled with brown (10YR 4/3) clay loam; alfalfa roots extended into joints; neutral, but non-calcareous.
TYPE LOCATION: Schoharie County, New York; about 100 yards south of US Route 20 and 1/8 mile east of Sharon Center. Sharon Springs, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 46 minutes, 41 seconds N. and Longitude 74 degrees, 35 minutes, 5 seconds W., NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness and depth to bedrock range from 10 to 20 inches. Rock fragments range from 5 to 35 percent by volume in the solum. Clay content ranges from 10 to 27 percent. The soil reaction ranges from strongly acid through neutral in the A horizon and from moderately acid through slightly alkaline in the B horizon. Free carbonates are in the fine-earth fraction above bedrock in some pedons.
The Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 1 through 3. Dry color value is 6 or more. Texture is fine sandy loam, loam, or silt loam in the fine-earth fraction. Some pedons may have an A horizon.
The B horizons have hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 6. The color can be mottled with lithochromic ghosts related to the underlying bedrock. Texture is fine sandy loam, very fine sandy loam, loam, or silt loam in the fine earth fraction. Some pedons have redoximorphic accumulations in the lower part of the B horizon. It has weak or moderate, fine or medium subangular blocky or granular structure. Consistence is very friable or friable.
The 2R horizon is dominantly limestone, dolomite, or dolomitic limestone bedrock, but hard shale or sandstone underlies some pedons.
COMPETING SERIES: The Newbern series is the only competing series. The Newbern soils have angular shale fragments of residual origin, lack a 2R horizon, have less than 2 percent organic matter in the surface layer, and have a warmer mean annual soil temperature.
The Amenia, Arnot, Benson, Catlett, Dover, Grenville, Hogansburg, Holyoke, Klinesville, Nassau, Nellis, Pequea, Wassaic, and Weikert series are similar soils in related families. Amenia, Dover, Grenville, Hogansburg, Nellis, Pequea, and Wassaic soils have bedrock at depths greater than 20 inches. Arnot, Catlett, Klinesville, Nassau, and Weikert soils have more than 35 percent rock fragments and less than 60 percent base saturation. Benson soils have more than 35 percent rock fragments. Holyoke soils have less than 60 percent base saturation.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Farmington soils are nearly level to steep soils on glaciated uplands where bedrock is at depths of less than 20 inches. Limestone sinks are a feature of some areas. Slope is mainly less than 10 percent, but ranges from 0 to 70 percent. The soils formed in wind and water deposits usually mixed with congeliturbate or till, and in unmodified till or congeliturbate. The till is derived from limestone, dolomite, dolomitic limestone, shale, and sandstone. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 26 to 45 inches; mean annual air temperature ranges from 45 to 50 degrees F.; and mean annual frost-free season ranges from 120 to 190 days. Elevation ranges from 95 to 1600 feet above sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Darien, Galway, Honeoye, Mohawk, Nellis, Ontario, and Wassaic soils, all of which are deeper to rock than are Farmington soils.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained and somewhat excessively drained. The potential for surface runoff is high or very high. Internal drainage is medium, largely because of joints and cracks in the underlying rock. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high throughout the mineral soil.
USE AND VEGETATION: About two thirds of the soil has been cleared. In cleared areas, where the soil is deepest, corn, small grains and hay or pasture are grown, or the areas are idle. The shallowest soils are in unimproved pasture, are idle, or are in northern hardwood trees with sugar maple as the dominant species.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: New York, western Connecticut, Massachusetts, northern New Jersey, and Vermont. MLRA's 101, 140, 142, 143, 144A, 144B. Farmington soils are moderately extensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Ontario County, New York, 1910.
REMARKS: The range of permeability and surface runoff potential was expanded in 2001. This series and the SC file list MLRA 143 and 144B as areas of use. This series is mesic. These MLRA's will probably be removed in the future.
Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon:
(1) Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface to 8 inches (Ap horizon).
(2) Cambic horizon - the zone from 8 to 18 inches (Bw horizons).
(3) Lithic contact - hard bedrock at 18 inches (2R horizon).