LOCATION LANGFORD NY+PA
Established Series
Rev. LWK-WEH-PSP
06/2019
LANGFORD SERIES
The Langford series consists of very deep, moderately well drained soils formed in loamy till. These soils are in glaciated upland areas. They have a fragipan starting between 38 and 71 cm (15 and 28 inches) below the soil surface. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high above the fragipan and moderately low in the fragipan and substratum. Slope ranges from 0 to 50 percent. Mean annual temperature is about 8 degrees C (46 degrees F), and mean annual precipitation is about 1,080 mm (42.5 inches).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Typic Fragiudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Langford silt loam on a 4 percent slope in a cultivated field. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap -- 0 to 23 cm (0 to 9 inches); dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) silt loam; weak fine and medium granular structure; friable; many fine roots; 10 percent rock fragments; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. [18 to 30 cm (7 to 12 inches) thick]
Bw1 -- 23 to 38 cm (9 to 15 inches); yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silt loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; common fine pores; 10 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2 -- 38 to 53 cm (15 to 21 inches); yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) silt loam; weak medium and coarse subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine roots; common fine pores; many medium and coarse faint pale brown (10YR 6/3) and few fine distinct reddish brown (5YR 4/4) masses of iron accumulations within the matrix; 10 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. [Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 13 to 53 cm (5 to 21 inches).]
Bx1 -- 53 to 86 cm (21 to 34 inches); brown (10YR 4/3) gravelly silt loam; moderate very coarse prismatic structure parting to weak medium and coarse subangular blocky; firm, slightly brittle; few fine roots along prism faces; common fine vesicular and few fine tubular pores; few faint clay films on surfaces along pores; prism faces 3 to 6 mm (1/8 to 1/4 inch) thick are light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2) with yellowish red (5YR 4/6) rinds; few medium faint light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) areas of iron depletion and prominent strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulations within the matrix; 15 percent rock fragments; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bx2 -- 86 to 114 cm (34 to 45 inches); brown (10YR 4/3) gravelly silt loam; massive; firm, slightly brittle; common fine and medium pores; common faint clay films on all faces of pores; few medium distinct light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2) areas of iron depletion and common fine faint brown (7.5YR 5/4) masses of iron accumulations within the matrix; 15 percent rock fragments; neutral; clear wavy boundary. [Combined thickness of the Bx horizon is 23 to 114 cm (9 to 45 inches).]
C -- 114 to 183 cm (45 to 72 inches); brown (10YR 4/3) gravelly silt loam; massive; firm; 20 percent rock fragments; strongly effervescent, moderately alkaline.
TYPE LOCATION: Chautauqua County, New York; town of Ripley, 0.7 mile east of Sinden Road and 150 feet south of Sulphur Springs Road. USGS South Ripley, NY topographic quadrangle; Latitude 42 degrees, 10 minutes, 28 seconds N. and Longitude 79 degrees, 41 minutes, 19 seconds W., NAD83.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 86 to 152 cm (34 to 60 inches). Depth to carbonates is 91 to 165 cm (36 to 65 inches). Depth to the top of the fragipan ranges from 38 to 71 cm (15 to 28 inches). Bedrock is at depths greater than 152 cm (60 inches). Rock fragments, mainly gravel, channers, and flagstones, range from 5 to 35 percent above the fragipan and commonly 15 to 60 percent in the fragipan and substratum. Some pedons have layers below depths of 102 cm (40 inches) that do not have rock fragments.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 or 3. It is fine sandy loam, loam, or silt loam in the fine-earth fraction. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to slightly acid, unless limed.
Uncultivated pedons have an A horizon, 5 to 13 cm (2 to 5 inches) thick, with hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 1 through 3.
The Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 3 through 6. It is loam, silt loam, clay loam, or silty clay loam in the fine-earth fraction. Structure is very weak to moderate subangular blocky, platy or granular. Consistence is friable or very friable. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to slightly acid.
Some pedons have an E horizon above the Bx horizon that has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 5 through 7, and chroma of 2 and 3. Texture is similar to the Bw horizon. Consistence is friable or firm.
The Bx horizons have hues of 7.5YR through 5Y, values of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. It is loam, silt loam, clay loam, or silty clay loam in the fine-earth fraction. Structure is very coarse prismatic that commonly parts to subangular blocky, or the horizon is massive. Consistence is firm or very firm and the material is slightly brittle. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to slightly alkaline and is neutral within a depth of 102 cm (40 inches).
Some pedons have a transitional BC or CB horizon with color and texture similar to the Bx or C horizon.
The C horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. It is loam, silt loam, clay loam, or silty clay loam in the fine-earth fraction. It is massive or has plate like divisions. Consistence is firm or very firm. Reaction ranges from neutral to moderately alkaline. Some pedons have a 2C horizon that is high in silt content and low in rock fragment content.
COMPETING SERIES: The
Marilla series is the only series in the same family. Marilla soils do not have a neutral reaction within a depth of 102 cm (40 inches).
The
Bath,
Broadalbin,
Cambridge,
Canaseraga,
Ira,
Lackawanna,
Mardin,
Montauk, and
Wurtsboro series are similar soils in related families. Bath, Broadalbin, Ira, Lackawanna, Mardin, Montauk, and Wurtsboro soils have a coarse-loamy particle-size control section. Cambridge soils have an argillic horizon in the fragipan. Canaseraga soils have a coarse-silty particle-size control section.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Langford soils are on convex, linear, and concave summits, shoulders, and backslopes of hills in glaciated uplands. Some areas are drumloidial hills. Slope ranges from 0 to 50 percent. These soils formed in till derived from siltstone, sandstone, shale, and some limestone. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 795 to 1,725 mm (31 to 68 inches), mean annual temperature ranges from 6.0 to 11.0 degrees C (43 to 52 degrees F), and mean annual growing season ranges from 105 to 180 days. Generally, these soils occur at elevations between 100 and 670 meters (328 and 2,198 feet) but have been mapped as high as 750 meters (2,460 feet) in some areas.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the
Chenango,
Chautauqua,
Chippewa,
Erie,
Howard,
Lordstown,
Mardin,
Schuyler, and
Valois soils. Chenango and Howard soils, and more poorly drained associates, are on nearby glaciofluvial terraces and outwash plains. Chautauqua soils have less clay and lack a fragipan. Somewhat poorly drained Erie soils are in a drainage sequence with Langford soils. Lordstown soils occupy higher bedrock controlled landscapes. Mardin soils are in nearby geographic areas and have a lower clay content and more acid reaction in the subsoil. Schuyler soils lack a fragipan. Valois soils are formed in glaciofluvial material and lack a fragipan.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Moderately well drained. The potential for surface runoff is medium to very high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high above the fragipan and moderately low in the fragipan and substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas have been cleared and are used mainly for corn, oats, hay, and pasture. A significant acreage is idle. Woodlots contain sugar maple, beech, northern red oak, black cherry, white ash, white pine, and hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The glaciated Appalachian Plateau of central and western New York and north-west Pennsylvania. MLRA's 101, 139, 140, and western portion of 144A. These soils are of moderate extent. The majority of the extent is along the transitional zone on the boundary between MLRA 140 and MLRA 101.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Erie County, New York, 1929.
REMARKS: A "blue sheet" dated 1969 showed the type location in Wyoming Co. NY classified as fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Fragiochrepts. The REMARKS section on the blue sheet mentioned that the series was formerly classified as a Sols Bruns Acides with a fragipan. By 1974, the same Wyoming Co. typical pedon was reinterpreted with reference to the original fragipan observation of "clay in pores" and was reclassified as Fragiudalfs (oriented clay and thus an argillic in the pan.) In a 1986 revision of the Langford OSD, the type location is described in Chautauqua Co. NY and had been reclassified as fine-loamy, mixed, mesic Typic Fragiochrepts. At present, the Langford OSD type location remains in Chautauqua Co. with its most modern classification of fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Typic Fragiudepts. The previous REMARKS section mentioned that it was moved to Chautauqua Co. because lab data indicated there was insufficient illuviated clay to qualify as an argillic horizon. Following completion of MLRA evaluation projects, it was determined that the type location will remain in Chautauqua Co. Although on the fringe of MLRAs 139 and 140, it is within the mesic temperature regime and fits the central concept of the Langford series.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in the typical pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 23 cm (0 to 9 inches (Ap horizon).
b. Cambic horizon - the zone from 23 to 53 cm (9 to 21 inches) (Bw horizon).
c. Fragipan - the zone from 53 to 114 cm (21 to 45 inches) (Bx horizon).
ADDITIONAL DATA: Characterization data for the Langford series is available from the Kellogg Soil Survey Laboratory in Lincoln, NE, and the soil survey laboratories at Cornell University and Pennsylvania State University.
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.