LOCATION MAYBID MA +CT NHEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine, mixed, semiactive, nonacid, mesic Typic Humaquepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Maybid silt loam forested, at an elevation of about 85 feet. (Colors are for moist soils.)
A--0 to 7 inches; very dark gray (10YR 3/1) silt loam, grayish brown (10YR 5/2) dry; moderate fine and medium granular structure; friable, slightly sticky, nonplastic; many fine, medium and coarse woody roots; moderately acid; clear smooth boundary. (6 to 10 inches thick)
Bg1--7 to 11 inches; gray (5Y 5/1) silty clay loam; moderate medium and coarse blocky structure; friable, sticky, slightly plastic; common fine, medium and coarse woody roots; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary.
Bg2--11 to 19 inches; greenish gray (5GY 5/1) silty clay; massive; firm, sticky, plastic; very few fine woody roots; few fine prominent brown (7.5YR 4/4) masses of iron accumulation; neutral; gradual smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bg horizons is 6 to 22 inches.).
Cg1--19 to 27 inches; greenish gray (5GY 5/1) silty clay; massive; firm, sticky, plastic; neutral; gradual smooth boundary. (0 to 30 inches thick)
Cg2--27 to 65 inches; dark greenish gray (5GY 4/1) silty clay; massive; firm, sticky, plastic; neutral.
TYPE LOCATION: Essex County, Massachusetts; Town of Amesbury, 100 yards east of Woodward Road at the Massachusetts - New Hampshire state line. USGS Exeter, NH-MASS 7 1/2 minute quadrangle; latitude 42 degrees 52 minutes 55 seconds N., longitude 70 degrees 56 minutes 11 seconds W., NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 18 to 30 inches. Content of rock fragments is usually less than 1 percent by volume. The soil ranges from strongly acid to moderately acid in the A horizon and from strongly acid to neutral in the B and C horizons. At least one horizon within 40 inches is moderately acid to neutral.
The A horizon is neutral or has hue of 10YR to 5Y, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 0 to 2. It is silt loam or silty clay loam. It is nonsticky or slightly sticky.
The upper part of the Bg horizon is neutral or has hue of 5Y, 5G, 5GY or 5BG, value of 3 to 6, and chroma of 0 to 2. Some redoximorphic features are present in some pedons. It is silt loam, silty clay loam, or silty clay. It has weak platy, weak to moderate subangular blocky or blocky, or moderate fine granular structure, or the horizon is massive. It is friable or firm and slightly sticky or sticky.
The lower part of the Bg horizon is neutral or has hue of 5Y or 5GY, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 0 to 2. It has distinct to prominent high chroma iron accumulations that comprise less than 40 percent of the matrix. The Bg horizon is silty clay, silty clay loam, or clay. It has weak to moderate prismatic or blocky structure, or the horizon is massive.
The Cg horizon is neutral or has hue of 5Y, 5GY, 5G, or 5BG, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 0 or 1. It is silty clay loam, silty clay, or clay.
COMPETING SERIES: The Maybid series is the only known member of this family.
The Alden, Biddeford, Birdsall, Canandaigua, Clatsop, Defiance, Dunning, Fonda, Livingston, Madalin, Papakating, Toledo and Tughill series are in related families. Alden, Birdsall, Canadaigua, and Tughill soils have less than 35 percent clay in the particle-size control section. Biddeford soils have histic epipedons. Madalin soils have an argillic horizon. Clatsop soils have acid reaction. Defiance, Dunning, and Papakating soils have irregular decrease in organic matter with depth. In addition, the Papakating soils have less than 35 percent clay. Fonda, Livingston, and Toledo soils have ochric epipedons; the Livingston soils, in addition, have more than 60 percent clay.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Maybid soils are level or nearly level soils on lowlands of silty and clayey sediments. The soils formed in water deposited material of marine or lacustrine origin. Slope ranges from 0 to 3 percent. Mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 50 degrees F.; mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 50 inches; and mean growing season ranges from 120 to 180 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Belgrade, Birdsall, Boxford, Brancroft, Elmwood, Raynham, Scitico, Scio, Suffield, Swanton, Unadilla, and Whately soils. Belgrade, Birdsall, Raynham, Scio, and Unadilla soils have coarse-silty particle-size control sections. Brancroft soils are fine-silty. The moderately well and somewhat poorly drained Boxford soils, the poorly drained Scitico soils, and well drained Suffield soils are members of a drainage sequence in the same landscape. Elmwood, Swanton, and Whately soils have coarse-loamy over clayey particle-size control sections.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Very poorly drained. Internal drainage is very slow. Permeability is slow or very slow. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the surface layer very low to moderately high in the subsoil and substratum. The soil is intermittently ponded or has very low runoff.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly brush land and woodland. Woodland consists of red maple, elm, tamarack, willow, alder, black spruce, and white pine. Cattails and sedges are common in nonwooded areas.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciolacustrine or marine lowlands in MLRA 144A in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and possibly eastern New York. The series is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Essex County, Massachusetts, 1977.
REMARKS: The Maybid soils were formerly included with the Biddeford series which has a histic epipedon. Mineralogy and cation exchange activity class are changed in this revision from illitic to mixed based upon a review of similar soils.
Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Umbric epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 10 inches, when mixed (A and part of the Bg1 horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 7 inches to a depth of 19 inches (Bg horizon).
3. Particle size class - the zone from 10 to 40 inches averages about 55 percent clay (fine).
ADDITIONAL DATA: The A horizon of the typical pedon was sampled (RT77-MA173) for base saturation (B.S.- 44 percent).