LOCATION FREETOWN MA+CT NY PA RI
Established Series
Rev. WHT-SMF-DAS
09/2013
FREETOWN SERIES
The Freetown series consists of very deep, very poorly drained organic soils formed in more than 130 centimeters of highly decomposed organic material. They are commonly in depressions or on level uplands and alluvial plains. Slope ranges from 0 to 2 percent. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high. The mean annual temperature is about 9 degrees Celsius and mean annual precipitation is about 1205 millimeters.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Dysic, mesic Typic Haplosaprists
TYPICAL PEDON: Freetown muck - on a 0 percent slope in a wooded area at an elevation of about 24 meters. When described the soil was wet and the depth to the water table was 30 centimeters. (Color is for moist soil.)
Oe--0 to 5 cm.; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/2) broken face mucky peat (hemic material); dark reddish brown (5YR 2/2) rubbed; 75 percent fiber, 35 percent rubbed; moderate medium platy structure; very friable; common medium roots; herbaceous and woody fiber; less than 5 percent mineral; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Oa1--5 to 13 cm.; black (N 2/0) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 5 percent fiber, 3 percent rubbed; weak fine granular structure; very friable; common medium roots; herbaceous fiber; less than 5 percent mineral material; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Oa2--13 to 51 cm.; black (5YR 2/1) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 10 percent fiber, 3 percent rubbed; massive; very friable; few fine roots; 2 percent brown (7.5YR 5/4) woody fragments 3 to 10 centimeters in diameter; less than 5 percent mineral material; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Oa3--51 to 76 cm.; black (5YR 2/1) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 20 percent fiber, 5 percent rubbed; massive; very friable; 5 percent brown (7.5YR 5/4) woody fragments 1 to 4 inches in diameter; less than 5 percent mineral material; extremely acid.
Oa4--76 to 112 cm.; black (5YR 2/1) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 20 percent fiber, 3 percent rubbed; massive; very friable; less than 5 percent mineral material; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary.
Oa5--112 to 165 cm.; dark reddish brown (5YR 2/2) broken face and rubbed sapric material; 5 percent fiber, 0 percent rubbed; massive; friable; less than 5 percent mineral material; extremely acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Bristol County, Massachusetts; Town of Freetown, 1 mile north of Braley Road, Acushnet, and 100 feet east of Route 140, in Bolton Cedar Swamp. USGS New Bedford North quadrangle; latitude 41 degrees 44 minutes 36 minutes N., and longitude 70 degrees 57 minutes 36 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The organic material extends to a depth of 130 centimeters or deeper. Cumulative layer of hemic materials comprise less than 25 centimeters and fibric materials less than 12 centimeters of the subsurface and bottom tiers. Woody fragments are in some part of the profile or throughout the profile in most pedons and comprise up to 25 percent of some horizons. Fragments consist of twigs, branches, logs, or stumps and are 1 centimeter to more than a 30 centimeters in diameter. Wood fragments are firm but break abruptly under pressure. Reaction is less than 4.5 in 0.01 molar calcium chloride throughout the control section.
The surface tier has hue of 5YR through 10YR, value of 2 to 3, and chroma of 0 through 3. It is dominantly sapric material; however, in some pedons it has various proportions of both sapric and hemic materials. It has weak or moderate, fine or medium, granular or subangular blocky structure; or it has moderate medium platy structure; or it is massive.
The subsurface tier has hue of 5YR through 2.5Y, value of 2 through 4, and chroma of 0 through 4. Redoximorphic features occur in some pedons. Chroma or value or both may change from 0.5 to 2 units upon rubbing. Broken faces become darker upon brief exposure to air. The subsurface tier is dominated by sapric material with a rubbed fiber content of less than 16 percent of the organic volume. It has granular, subangular blocky or platy structure, or it is massive. It is very friable or friable. Unrubbed organic material resembles herbaceous and woody plant tissue.
The bottom tier has colors similar to the subsurface tier. It is typically massive although some pedons have platy or subangular blocky structure. It is very friable or friable. Unrubbed organic material has variable amounts of woody and herbaceous plant tissues.
COMPETING SERIES: These are
Lumley,
Pangborn and
Puckum series. These soils are from outside of LRR R. Lumley soils have less than 813 millimeters of mean annual precipitation in the upper part of the surface tier during July and August and have fibric material in the upper part of teh surface tier. Pangborn soils formed in areas with a marine climate and have a difference in mean summer temperature and mean winter temperature of less than 9 degrees Celsius. Puckum soils formed in nonglaciated areas and have a mean annual temperature of more than 10 degrees Celsius.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Freetown soils are in bogs that range from small enclosed depressions to bogs of several hundred acres in size. These bogs are on lake plains, outwash plains, till plains and moraines and alluvial plains. Slope ranges from 0 to 2 percent. Mean annual temperature is 7 to 10 degrees Celsius. Mean annual precipitation is 1016 to 1270 millimeters. The frost-free period is 120 to 180 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the
Hinckley,
Ridgebury,
Scarboro,
Swansea,
Whitman, and
Windsor soils on nearby landscapes. All except Swansea are mineral soils. Swansea soils are on similar landforms and have less than 130 centimeters of organic material. The excessively drained Hinckley and Windsor soils and the very poorly drained Scarboro are on associated outwash landforms. The somewhat poorly and poorly drained Ridgebury and very poorly drained Whitman soils are on adjacent till landforms.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Very poorly drained. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly forested. Native vegetation includes red maple, American elm, green ash, eastern hemlock, Atlantic white cedar, buttonbush, winterberry, swamp azaleas, and leatherleaf. Some acreage has been cleared and is used for truck crops. The main crop is cranberries.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and New York (MLRAs 144A, 145, and 149B). The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Bristol County, Massachusetts, 1979.
REMARKS: These soils were previously mapped in Massachusetts as Cranberry bog, Medisaprists, and Muck and in some areas as Carlisle soils.
The upper 10 to 25 centimeters of the surface tier is sand or coarse sand in some pedons where agricultural practices, e.g, cranberry operations, may manipulate the surface.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon include:
1. Sapric materials - the zone from 5 cm. to 165 cm is composed dominantly of sapric material (Oa1, Oa2, Oa3, Oa4, and Oa5 horizons)
2. Dysic reaction class - the zone from 0 to 130 cm. has reaction of less than 4.5 (in 0.01 M CaCl2) (Oe, Oa1, Oa2, Oa3, Oa4, and Oa5 horizons).
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.