LOCATION FLEMING KYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, active, mesic Mollic Hapludalfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Fleming silt loam - pasture.
(Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap--0 to 7 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/3) silt loam, reddish brown (5YR 5/3) dry; moderate fine granular structure; very friable; many roots; medium acid; clear smooth boundary. (6 to 9 inches thick)
Bt1--7 to 11 inches; reddish brown (5YR 4/4) silty clay loam; moderate fine subangular blocky structure; friable; many roots; few clay films; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (1 to 6 inches thick)
Bt2--11 to 20 inches; yellowish red (5YR 4/6) clay; moderate to strong fine subangular blocky structure; firm; many roots; common clay films; 1 percent small (1/2 to 2mm) black concretions; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (8 to 13 inches thick)
Bt3--20 to 30 inches; brown (7.5YR 4/4) clay; common fine distinct variegations of light olive brown (2.5Y 5/6); moderate fine angular blocky structure; firm, sticky and plastic; common roots; common clay films; 2 percent small black concretions; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (3 to 12 inches thick)
BC--30 to 45 inches; 50 percent dark gray (5Y 4/1) and 50 percent greenish gray (5G 6/1) clay with common medium mottles of red (2.5YR 4/6) and olive (5Y 5/4); weak medium angular blocky structure; firm, very sticky and very plastic; few roots; 10 percent weathered greenish gray clay shale fragments; few black concretions; slightly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (10 to 24 inches thick)
Cr--45 to 80 inches; greenish gray (5G 6/1) soft clay shale with relict platy structure; moderately alkaline, calcareous. (40 to 140 inches thick)
TYPE LOCATION: Clark County, Kentucky; about 1,000 feet north of State Highway 1028, about 1 mile southwest of the junction with State Highway 89 at Log Lick.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 28 to 50 inches. Depth to a paralithic contact is 40 inches or more. Coarse fragments of limestone, shale or siltstone range from 0 to 25 percent by volume. Reaction ranges from slightly acid to very strongly acid in the solum, and is slightly acid to moderately alkaline in the substratum.
The Ap horizon or A horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 5YR, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 2 or 3. It is silt loam, silty clay loam or clay.
The Bt horizon has hue of 2.5YR, 5YR or 7.5YR, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 4 to 6. It is silty clay loam, silty clay or clay with a weighted average of more than 35 percent clay in the argillic horizon.
The BC horizon is neutral or has hue of 5G, 5GY, 5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 or less. It is silty clay or clay.
The CB or C horizon, when present, has hue of 5Y, 5GY, or 5G, value of 5 or 6 and chromas of 3 or less, and typically is variegated or has mottles in shades of red, brown and yellow. It is silty clay, or clay. It is high in magnesium and is believed to have contained originally, much more sodium.
The Cr horizon is greenish gray soft clayey shale. Some pedons have red and olive yellow mottles.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Basco, Belpre, Brooke, Caleast, McAfee, and Salvisa series in the same family. Basco soils have a thin loess mantle and are interstratified with sandstone and shale within a depth of 40 inches. Belpre soils are slightly acid to moderately alkaline in the solum and have free carbonates within a depth of 30 inches. Brooke and Salvisa soils have a lithic contact at depths of 20 to 40 inches. Caleast soils have limestone bedrock with thin strata of calcareous shales and have siltstones at depths of 40 to 80 inches or more. McAfee soils have a lithic contact at depths of 20 to 40 inches inches.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Sloping to steep upland ridgetops and upper sideslopes with slopes of about 6 to 30 percent. The soils formed in red clayey residuum from limestone about 20 to 40 inches thick underlain by unconforming greenish gray clayey residuum from calcareous clay shales. Mean annual temperature ranges from 53 to 56 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 52 inches.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Hagerstown, Shrouts, Beasley, Otway and Brassfield series. Hagerstown has a thicker solum, and lacks the greenish gray calcareous substratum. Shrouts has a thinner solum and gray B horizon. Beasley lacks a dark A horizon, commonly is less red in the B horizon, and has C horizon generally containing more sand and less clay. Otway and Brassfield have cambic horizons.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained, with medium to rapid runoff and moderately slow permeability.
USE AND VEGETATION: Nearly all areas are used for burley tobacco, corn, small grains, hay and pasture. Native vegetation was chiefly oak species, elm, hackberry, black walnut, ash, hickory, black and honey locust and red cedar.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Outer Bluegrass region of Kentucky marginal to the Knobs; possibly Southern Ohio and Indiana. Total extent probably is small, with estimated total acreage in Kentucky of 8,000.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Bath County, Kentucky; 1960.
REMARKS: The Official Series Location was moved to Clark County, Kentucky during the MLRA-121 update.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this series are:
Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 7 inches. Mollic colors but too thin to be a mollic epipedon.
Argillic horizon - the zone from approximately 7 inches to 30 inches.
Paralithic contact - at a depth of 45 inches.