LOCATION FARNHAM NYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, mesic Aquic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Farnham channery silt loam - idle (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap-- 0 to 7 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) channery silt loam; moderate fine granular structure; very friable; many fine roots; 25 percent shale fragments; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 10 inches thick.)
Bw1-- 7 to 14 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) very channery silt loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; very friable; many roots; 35 percent shale fragments; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2-- 14 to 21 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) very channery loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; very friable; many roots; 50 percent shale fragments; strongly acid; diffuse wavy boundary.
Bw3-- 21 to 38 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) very channery loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; very friable; 55 percent shale fragments with rounded edges are arranged with flat sides horizontal; few faint grayish brown (10YR 5/2) areas of iron depletion; very strongly acid; diffuse wavy boundary. (The combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 18 to 38 inches.)
C-- 38 to 60 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) extremely channery loam; massive; friable; 60 percent shale fragments; common medium distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation; strongly acid at 40 inches, slightly acid at 60 inches.
TYPE LOCATION: Erie County, New York, town of Hamburg; 0.7 mile east-northeast of intersection of U.S. Route 20 and Lakeview Road, 100 feet west of landfill site. USGS Eden, NY topographic quadrangle Latitude 42 degrees, 42 minutes, 43 seconds N. and Longitude 78 degrees, 54 minutes, 15 seconds w. NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 24 through 48 inches. Coarse fragments are dominantly shale with 0 through 10 percent erratic pebbles and cobblestones, and total 15 to 60 percent in the A and upper B horizons and from 45 to 75 percent in the lower B and the C horizons. Unless limed, the soil reaction ranges from very strongly acid through moderately acid in the Ap and in the B horizon and from strongly acid through slightly acid in the C horizon, at depths less than 80 inches. The texture of the fine earth fraction throughout the soil ranges from loam through silt loam.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 through 4. Structure is weak or moderate, fine or medium, granular or subangular blocky. Consistence is very friable or friable.
The B horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 5Y, value of 4 or 5 and chroma of 3 through 6, with redoximorphic depletions of 2 chroma, and with or without redoximorphic accumulations of chroma higher than 2. Structure is very weak through moderate, fine or medium, subangular blocky. Consistence is very friable through firm.
The C horizon has hue of 10YR through 5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. Consistence is friable or.
COMPETING SERIES: The Castile is the only series in the same family. Castile soils have coarse fragments dominated by sandstone and siltstone.
The Blasdell, Chenango, Ellington, Manlius, and Pompton series are related soils in similar families. Blasdell, Chenango, and Manlius soils lack mottles with chroma of 2 in the B horizon. Ellington and Pompton soils have less than 35 percent coarse fragments in the particle-size control section.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Farnham soils occupy nearly level and gently sloping areas of old alluvial fans, valley trains, and terraces. They formed in water-sorted material dominated by fragments from local shale bedrock. Slope ranges from 0 through 8 percent. Mean annual air temperature ranges from 48 to 52 degrees F.; mean annual precipitation ranges from 28 to 45 inches; mean frost free period ranges from 120 to 160 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the competing Blasdell and Manlius soils. The Unadilla, Scio, and Allard soils are on lower terraces. The Hamlin, Middlebury, Pope, Philo, Teel, and Tioga soils are on nearby flood plains. The Mardin and Marilla soils on till in uplands. Except for the Blasdell and Manlius soils, all of these have less than 35 percent coarse fragments in the particle-size control section.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is very low or low. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is high throughout the mineral soil.
USE AND VEGETATION: Farnham soils are used to grow corn, hay, and small grain in support of dairy farming. Native vegetation is sugar maple, black cherry, white ash, and hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Allegheny Plateau and Erie lake plain in western New York. MLRA 101 and 140. The series is inextensive, the total acreage is about 7,500 acres.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Erie County, New York, 1979.
REMARKS: This dry color of this pedon was not published, but was correlated as an Ochric epipedon. This needs to be investigated.
Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 through 7 inches (A horizon).
b. Cambic horizon - the zone from 7 through 38 inches (Bw1, 2, and 3 horizons).