LOCATION MACOMBER NY+CT MA VT
Established Series
Rev. WEH-MF-CAW
12/2012
MACOMBER SERIES
The Macomber series consists of moderately deep, well drained soils formed in loamy till derived from phyllite and slate. They are on glacially modified bedrock controlled landforms. Hard bedrock is at a depth of 20 to 40 inches. Slope ranges from 3 to 80 percent. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high. Mean annual temperature is about 43 degrees F. and mean annual precipitation is about 38 degrees F.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Loamy-skeletal, mixed, active, frigid Typic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Macomber channery silt loam, on a 30 percent south facing slope in a forested area. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Oi--0 to 1 inch; slightly decomposed plant material comprised of leaves and twigs. (0 to 4 inches thick)
A--1 to 4 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) channery silt loam; weak medium granular structures; friable; common fine and medium roots; 15 percent coarse fragments; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (1 to 4 inches thick)
Bw1--4 to 12 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) very channery loam; weak fine subangular blocky structure; friable; few fine and medium roots; 40 percent coarse fragments; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (7 to 15 inches thick)
Bw2--12 to 24 inches; yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) very channery loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; 50 percent coarse fragments; very strongly acid; abrupt irregular boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizon 7 to 28 inches.)
2R--24 inches; fractured and folded dark greenish gray (5G 4/1) phyllite bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Rensselaer County, New York. Town of Petersburg. 1,700 feet along dirt road from junction of Prosser Hollow Road and Lewis Hollow Road to skid trail, 250 feet east along skid trail and 400 feet north in woods; USGS North Pownal Quadrangle; latitude 42 degrees 47 minutes 49 minutes N., longitude 73 degrees 18 minutes 59 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the solum ranges from 15 to 30 inches. Depth to bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches. Rock fragments are mainly phyllite, slate, schist, and quartz with content ranging in volume from 10 to 35 percent in the A horizon, 30 to 60 percent in the B horizon, and from 40 to 65 percent in the C horizon, averaging 35 percent or more throughout the series control section. Up to 15 percent of the surface may be covered with flagstones, stones and boulders. Unless limed, the reaction is moderately acid to very strongly acid in the A horizon and strongly acid or very strongly acid in the Bw and C horizons.
The A horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 1 to 4. Texture is silt loam or loam in the fine earth fraction. It has weak or moderate, very fine, fine or medium granular structure and very friable or friable consistence.
The upper part of Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR to 2.5Y, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 3 to 6. The lower part has hue of 10YR to 2.5Y, with value and chroma ranges the same as the upper part. Texture is silt loam or loam in the fine earth fraction. It has weak or moderate, fine or medium subangular blocky structure.
Some pedons have a BC horizon with properties similar to the lower part of the Bw and C.
Some pedons have a C horizon that has hue of 10YR to 5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 6. Texture is silt loam or loam in the fine earth fraction. It has platy or angular blocky structure or the horizon is massive. Consistence is very friable to firm.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Knapp Creek,
Lagross,
Mandy,
Mosinee, and
Rockrift series. Knapp Creek, Lagross and Mosinee soils have bedrock at depths greater than 40 inches. Mandy soils formed in residuum derived from acid siltstone and shale. Rockrift soils are very deep and formed in till and local colluvium derived from sandstone, siltstone and shale.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Macomber soils are on bedrock controlled, glacially modified land forms where the till is derived mainly from strongly folded phyllite, schist, quartzite, and slate. Slope ranges from 3 to 80 percent. Mean annual air temperature ranges from 40 to 45 degrees F, mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 45 inches and mean annual frost-free season ranges from 90 to 130 days. Elevation ranges from about 1000 to 2100 feet.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the
Bernardston,
Hoosic,
Manlius,
Nassau,
Pittstown,
Quonset,
Taconic and the
Warwick soils. Bernardston and Pittstown soils are very deep and have dense substrata. Hoosic, Quonset and Warwick soils are mesic and formed in outwash material. Manlius and Nassau soils are mesic. Taconic soils are shallow to phyllite and slate bedrock.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Runoff is medium to rapid. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas are in forest containing sugar maple, American beech, paper birch, eastern hemlock, white oak, and red oak. Some areas are used as brush land or for unimproved pasture.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Taconic Mountain range of Eastern New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont; MLRAs 143 and 144B. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Rensselaer County, New York, 1937, Inactivated 1963, reestablished 1980.
REMARKS: The concept of Macomber series as originally described in the 1937 Rensselaer County Soil Survey, was a coarse-loamy, mixed, frigid, Typic Haplorthod. Available laboratory data on other soils in the region did not support the existence of spodosols so the classification was changed.
Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the soil surface to a depth of 3 inches (A horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 3 to 23 inches (Bw1 and Bw2 horizons).
Soil Interpretation Records: NY0281, NY0321
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.