LOCATION HAIGHTS            NY
Established Series
LMcD-JWW
02/2000

HAIGHTS SERIES


The Haights series consists of deep, well drained and moderately well drained soils formed in water-sorted materials. They are nearly level to rolling permeable soils on alluvial fans and outwash terraces. Haights soils typically have very dark grayish brown silt loam A horizons; dark brown silt loam, dark yellowish brown shaly silt loam and brown shaly loam B horizons; and, faintly mottled grayish brown shaly loam C horizons.

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, frigid Typic Dystrudepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Haights silt loam - pasture.
(Colors are for moist soil.)

Ap--0 to 6 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; friable; many fine fibrous roots; 10 percent rock fragements; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick).

Bwl--6 to 17 inches; dark brown (7.5YR 4/4) silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; common fine and few medium pores; 10 percent rock fragments; slightly acid; clear smooth boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick).

Bw2--17 to 27 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) shaly silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; common fine and few medium pores; 15 percent rock fragments; slightly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick).

Bw3--27 to 34 inches; brown (10YR 5/3) channery loam; common medium distinct strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) and few fine faint grayish brown (10YR 5/2) mottles; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots in top 10 inches; 30 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 18 inches thick).

C--34 to 60 inches; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) channery loam; few fine faint yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) mottles; weak thick platy structure; friable; thin lenses of gravelly sand and small pockets of sand; 30 percent rock fragments; strongly acid.

TYPE LOCATION: Jefferson County, New York; Town of Worth, 50 feet west of County Route 93, 1.2 miles north of Worth Center.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the solum ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Rock fragments dominated by shale range from 5 to 35 percent by volume in the upper part of the solum and from 20 to 60 percent in the lower part of the solum and in the C horizon, and include up to 10 percent greater than 3 inches with average rock fragment content in the particle-size control section less than 35 percent. The soil ranges from extremely acid through moderately acid in the solum, and from strongly acid through slightly acid in the substratum. Some pedons are neutral below 48 inches.

The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 1 or 2. It is silt loam or loam in the fine-earth fraction. Structure is weak or moderate, medium or fine graular. Consistence is friable or very friable.

The B horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 or 4. High or low chroma mottles may occur below a depth of 24 inches. Texture is silt loam, loam, or fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction. Structure is weak or moderate very fine to medium subangular blocky. Consistence is friable or very friable.

The C horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture is loam, silt loam, or fine sandy loam in the fine-earth fraction with thin lenses of gravelly sand and pockets of fine sand in the lower part. It is massive or has weak or moderate, medium or thick platy structure. Consistence is friable or very friable.

COMPETING SERIES: These are the Mesaba and Mosinee and the tentative Bice, Elliottsville, Millsite and Wawina soils in the same family. Mesaba soils formed in glacial till and have gabbro bedrock within a depth of 40 inches. Mosinee soils
formed in thin loamy deposits and in the underlying deeply weathered granitic rock. Bice soils formed in deep till and lack stratification in the C horizon. Elliottsville and Millsite soils are 20 to 40 inches deep to bedrock. Wawina soils have very fine sand or loamy very fine sand textures throughout.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Haights soils are nearly level to rolling on alluvial fans and outwash terraces. Slopes range from 0 to 15 percent. The soil formed in alluvium or outwash material from shale and some sandstone. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 35 to 43 inches, mean annual temperature from 40 to 44 degrees F., and mean annual growing season from 90 to 130 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the well drained Lagross and poorly drained and very poorly drained Gulf soils in a drainage sequence. Carbondale muck is in bogs. Bice and Pinckney soils are on adjoining till uplands.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained and moderately well drained. Runoff is medium. Permeability is moderate. An apparent seasonal high water table is at depths of 2 to 3 feet from February to April.

USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas have been cleared and are used for growing corn, oats, hay and pasture. Common trees in forested areas are sugar maple, beech, oak, ash, cherry, white pine, red pine, and red spruce.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Tug Hill Plateau and Black River Valley of New York. The series is of small extent.

MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Jefferson County, New York, 1983.

Remarks: This series is the frigid analogue of an acid variant of the Herkimer series mapped in the Tug Hill.


National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.