LOCATION LINNEUS MEEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, isotic, frigid Dystric Eutrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Linneus silt loam, on a 6 percent north-facing slope in a cultivated field. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap-0 to 11 inches; very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) silt loam; pale olive (5Y 6/3) dry; weak very fine granular structure; friable; common very fine and fine roots throughout; 3 percent gravel; slightly alkaline; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 11 inches thick)
Bw1--11 to 18 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) silt loam; weak very fine granular structure; friable; few very fine, fine, and medium roots throughout; 4 percent gravel and 2 percent cobbles; neutral; clear smooth boundary.
Bw2--18 to 26 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silt loam; weak very fine granular structure; friable; 4 percent gravel; neutral; abrupt wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon is 6 to 16 inches.)
C-26 to 32 inches; 50 percent very dark gray (5Y 3/1) and 50 percent olive gray (5Y 4/2) silt loam; massive; friable; 1 percent gravel; strongly alkaline; abrupt wavy boundary.
R-32 inches; unweathered bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Aroostook County, Maine; Town of New Limerick; about 0.9 mile southeast on the Campbell Road from the railroad crossing, 0.2 mile east on a field road and 390 feet south of the field road; USGS Linneus topographic quadrangle; lat. 46 degrees 6 minutes 39 seconds N. and long. 67 degrees 58 minutes 41 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 24 to 31 inches. Depth to bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Texture is silt loam throughout. Rock fragment content ranges from 0 to 20 percent in individual horizons, but the weighted average is 10 percent or less. They are mainly gravel size. Consistence is friable or very friable throughout. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to slightly alkaline in the surface horizon, from moderately acid to moderately alkaline in the subsoil, and from moderately acid to strongly alkaline in the substratum.
The Ap, or A horizon where present, has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 or 3. They have granular structure. Some uncultivated areas have a thin 0 horizon at the soil surface.
The Bw horizon has hue of 10YR to 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. It has granular, subangular blocky or platy structure.
Some pedons have a BC horizon with hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. It has granular or platy structure or it is massive.
The C horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 2 to 5, and chroma of 1 to 4. It has platy structure or it is massive.
The bedrock is mainly metamorphosed limestone, calcareous sandstone or calcareous shale.
COMPETING SERIES: There are currently no other series in the same family. The Elliottsville, Mapleton, Tunbridge, and Winnecook series are in related families. The Elliottsville, Tunbridge and Winnecook soils all have spodic horizons. The Mapleton soils have more than 18 percent clay in the particle-size control section.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Linneus soils are on till plains, hills and ridges. Slope ranges from 0 to 35 percent, but is dominantly less than 15. The soils formed in a moderately deep mantle of glacial till derived mainly from metamorphosed limestone, calcareous sandstone and shale. The climate is humid and cool temperate. The mean annual temperature ranges from 38 to 43 degrees F., and the mean annual precipitation ranges from 36 to 40 inches. The frost-free season ranges from 80 to 120 days. Elevation ranges from 350 to 1200 feet above mean sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Caribou and Conant soils. Caribou soils are very deep to bedrock and are in similar positions on the landscape. Conant soils are very deep, moderately well and somewhat poorly drained soils in lower positions on the landscape.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Permeability is moderate.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are cultivated and used mainly for potatoes, oats, grass and clover. Wooded areas are forested with sugar maple, beech, yellow birch, white birch and to a lesser extent white spruce, red spruce and balsam fir.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Southern Aroostook County, Maine. (MLRA's 143 and 146) The series is of small extent.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Southern Aroostook County, Maine 1917
REMARKS: 1. This revision reflects a change in classification from coarse-loamy, mixed, frigid Dystric Eutrochrepts to coarse-loamy, isotic, frigid Dystric Eutrochrepts. 2. This revision also includes a change in the type location to better reflect field conditions. 3. Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 11 inches;
b. Cambic horizon - the zone from 11 to 26 inches;
c. Lithic contact - unweathered bedrock at 32 inches.
ADDITIONAL DATA: Source of data used in establishing the taxonomic class and the range in characteristics is Maine Agricultural Experiment Station, Technical Bulletin 137, February 1990.
The Soil Interpretation Record number for the Linneus series is ME0039.