LOCATION MILLIS NH
Established Series
Rev. SJZ
12/2021
MILLIS SERIES
The Millis soils have an 18 to 36 inch thick fine sandy loam mantle that is underlain by a gravelly loamy sand fragipan.
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, isotic, frigid Entic Fragiorthods
TYPICAL PEDON: Millis very stony fine sandy loam -- forested (Colors are for moist soil.)
Oi--0 to 1 inch; Litter of red oak and red maple leaves.
A--1 to 3 inches; Very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) fine sandy loam; weak fine crumb structure; very friable; many small and medium tree roots; less than 5 percent coarse fragments; extremely acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (1 to 4 inches thick)
Bw1--3 to 11 inches; Brown (7.5YR 4/4) fine sandy loam; massive, clods part to subangular blocks and granules; very friable; many small and medium tree roots; less than 5 percent coarse fragments; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 12 inches thick)
Bw2--11 to 25 inches; Yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) fine sandy loam; structureless-massive; very friable; many small and medium tree roots in upper part and few below; 5 to 10 percent coarse fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (8 to 15 inches thick)
BC--25 to 31 inches; Light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) fine sandy loam; massive; friable to very friable; very few roots; 5 to 10 percent coarse fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (2 to 6 inches thick)
2C--31 to 51 inches; Olive gray (5Y 5/2) gravelly loamy sand; massive; very firm in place, firm and brittle in the hand; 25 to 35 percent coarse fragments; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Town of Dover.
Just north of Route 109 and 1,000 feet west of Dover-Westwood town line next to substation. USGS Medfield Quadrangle, 42 degrees 12'12"N, 71 degrees 15'17"W.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness is 18 to 36 inches and corresponds closely to the depth of the underlying coarse-textured fragipan. Content of angular coarse fragments of pebbles, cobblestones and stones ranges from about 5 to 20 percent in the solum and 20 to more than 50 percent in the 2C horizon. Most Millis soils have a very stony or extremely stony surface except where stones have been removed. Reaction ranges from extremely acid through medium acid where not limed.
The A horizon has colors with a hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, a value of 2 or 3, and a chroma of 1 or 2. The Ap horizon has similar colors, but the values and chromas are higher. The A horizons have a fine sandy loam, sandy loam, very fine sandy loam or loam texture; a weak or moderate crumb or granular structure; and a very friable consistence. In unplowed areas there may be a thin, discontinuous, grayish E horizon.
Color of the B horizons becomes paler with depth. The Bw horizon has colors with a hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, a value of 4 or 5, and chromas of 3 through 8. The lower B horizons have colors with a hue of 2.5Y or 10YR, values of 4 through 7, and chromas of 3 through 6. The texture of the B horizons is dominantly a fine sandy loam but ranges from sandy loam to loam. They are structureless (massive) or have a weak crumb or granular structure and have a very friable or friable consistence.
The 2C horizon has colors with a dominant hue of 5Y or 2.5Y but ranges to 7.5YR, values of 5 through 7, and chromas of 1 through 4. Texture is commonly gravelly loamy sand but ranges from gravelly loamy fine sand to gravelly loamy coarse sand and very gravelly analogs of these textures. The horizon is massive or has weak, thin to thick platy structure. Consistence is firm to extremely firm with brittleness characteristics of fragipans.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the
Bernardston,
Broadbrook,
Newport, and
Paxton series in the same family. All these soils have finer-textured fragipans and all, but Paxton, have a higher silt content in the solum. The
Becket,
Canton,
Charlton,
Essex,
Gloucester,
Marlow, and
Poquonock series are in related families. Becket and Marlow soils are colder and have more organic carbon in the spodic horizon. Canton, Charlton, and Gloucester soils lack fragipans. Essex and Poquonock soils have sandy textural control sections.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Millis soils occur on glacial till upland plains, hills and ridges. Slope gradients range from 0 to more than 35 percent but are dominantly 3 to 25 percent. The regolith consists of a fine sandy loam mantle over sandy glacial till of Wisconsin age derived mainly from granite and gneiss. In some places, the till contains considerable amounts of fine-grained sandstone rock fragments. The climate is humid temperate. The mean annual temperature is 46 degrees F. to 50 degrees F., the mean annual precipitation is 40 +o 46 inches, and the frost free season is 120 to 200 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS:
Scituate soils are the moderately well drained associates. Shallow to bedrock
Hollis, poorly drained
Ridgebury, and very poorly drained
Whitman sols are other members in the drainage sequence. Millis soils are closely associated with
Canton soils. They are less closely associated with the
Acton,
Charlton,
Essex,
Gloucester,
Paxton, and
Woodbridge soils. Acton and Woodbridge soils are moderately well drained.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Runoff and internal drainage are medium. Permeability is moderately rapid or rapid in the solum and slow in the fragipan. Water moves laterally along the top of the fragipan.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly forested or idle. Some areas have been cleared of surface stones and are used for crops and pasture. Native vegetation is forest composed of white pine, red, white and black oaks, hickory, red maple, sugar maple, gray birch, beech, hemlock, and white ash.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and probably Maine, and eastern New York. The series is extensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES PROPOSED: Norfolk County, Massachusetts, October 1966. Named for the Town of Millis in Norfolk County, Massachusetts.
REMARKS: The Millis soils would be classified as Brown Poszolic in the 1938 classification system. The Millis series was originally classified as being in a coarse-loamy over sandy or sandy-skeletal particle-size class. Although such pedons still exist on the landscape, our observations since 1966 indicate that the bulk of the pedons are in a coarse-loamy particle-size class.
OSED scanned by SSQA. Last revised by state on 11/73.
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.