LOCATION NELLIS NY CT MA VTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Eutrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Nellis fine sandy loam on 8 to 15 percent slopes in a hay field . (Colors refer to moist soil unless specified otherwise).
Ap-- 0 to 9 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) fine sandy loam, pale brown 10YR 6/3, dry; moderate fine and medium granular structure; very friable; many very fine and fine and few medium roots; common fine and few medium tubular pores, and many fine vesicular pores; 5 percent rock fragments; neutral; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 12 inches thick.)
Bw1-- 9 to 16 inches; dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) fine sandy loam, weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; very friable; many fine and very fine, and few medium roots; common fine and few medium tubular, and many fine vesicular pores; 5 percent rock fragments; neutral; clear wavy boundary.
Bw2-- 16 to 21 inches; brown (10YR 4/3) fine sandy loam; moderate fine and medium subangular blocky structure; very friable; common very fine and fine roots; common fine and few medium tubular pores, and many fine vesicular pores; 5 percent rock fragments; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizons is 7 to 24 inches.)
BC1-- 21 to 26 inches, brown (10YR 5/3) fine sandy loam; massive with thin and medium plate-like divisions; friable; common very fine and fine roots; common fine vesicular, and few fine tubular pores; 6 percent rock fragments; neutral; clear smooth boundary.
BC2-- 26 to 37 inches, 80 percent brown (10YR 5/3), 10 percent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6), and 10 percent brown (7.5YR 4/2) fine sandy loam; massive with medium and thick plate-like divisions; firm; few very fine and fine roots; few fine tubular, and common fine vesicular pores; 8 percent rock fragments; few fine faint brown (7.5YR 5/4) soft masses of iron accumulation; neutral; gradual wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the BC is 0 to 16 inches.)
C-- 37 to 60 inches, grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) fine sandy loam; massive with plate-like divisions; firm; few very fine and fine roots; few fine tubular and vesicular pores; 9 percent rock fragments; moderately alkaline; violently effervescent; gradual wavy boundary.
Cd-- 60 to 80 inches, grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) fine sandy loam; massive; very firm; 13 percent rock fragments; moderately alkaline; violently effervescent.
TYPE LOCATION: Essex County, New York, Town of Essex, 500 feet south of junction of Clark Road and Cross Road, then 500 feet east of Clark Road; Willsboro, NY USGS topographic quadrangle; Latitude 44 degrees, 15 minutes, 47 seconds N. and Longitude 73 degrees, 23 minutes, 01 second W., NAD 1927
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of mineral solum ranges from 15 to 37 inches and depth to carbonates range from 15 to 38 inches. Depth to bedrock is greater than 60 inches. Rock fragments range from 3 to 35 percent by volume in the A horizon, 5 to 35 percent in the B horizon, and 5 to 50 percent in the C horizon. Reaction ranges from moderately acid to neutral in the upper part of the mineral solum, moderately acid to slightly alkaline in the lower part of the solum and neutral to moderately alkaline in the substratum.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, values of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 through 4, and value 4 through 6, chroma 2 through 5 dry. It ranges from fine sandy loam to silt loam in the fine earth fraction. It has weak or moderate granular structure and very friable or friable consistence. Undisturbed areas have an A horizon 2 to 6 inches thick.
The Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. The B horizon ranges from fine sandy loam to silt loam in the fine earth fraction. It has weak or moderate, fine or medium subangular blocky structure except some subhorizons may be massive. Consistence is very friable or friable. Faint redoximorphic features are at the contact between the B and C horizons in some pedons.
The BC or CB horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 6. Faint redoximorphic features are in some pedons. It ranges from fine sandy loam to silt loam in the fine earth fraction. Structure is weak or moderate subangular blocky or it is massive with or without plate-like divisions. Consistence is friable or firm.
The C horizon has hue of 10YR through 5Y, value of 3 through 7, and chroma of 2 through 6. Chroma 2 is a result of parent material or lithologic origin rather than redoximorphic depletion. It is sandy loam, fine sandy loam or loam in the fine earth fraction. Consistence is friable or firm. The C horizon is calcareous and the carbonates are mostly CaCO3. Some pedons have Cd horizons with firm or very firm consistence at 60 inches or below.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Galway, Salter, and Sunburg series. Galway soils have bedrock at depths of 20 to 40 inches. Salter has stratification of textures and rock fragments in the upper 40 inches. Sunburg has carbonates within 15 inches of the surface.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Nellis soils are nearly level to steep soils on till plains. Slope ranges 0 and 60 percent. These soils formed in till high in calcic limestone, with or without a mantle high in silt and very fine sand up to 18 inches thick. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 26 to 47 inches. Mean annual air temperature ranges from 44 to 49 degrees F. The mean frost-free season ranges from 120 to 180 days. The elevation ranges from 95 to 1100 feet above mean sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Amenia, Benson, Honeoye, Kars, Lowville, Massena, and Sun soils. Amenia, Massena, and Sun soils are wetter associates of a drainage sequence. Benson soils are shallow to bedock. Honeoye soils have an argillic horizon. Kars soils formed in nearby glacial outwash deposits. Lowville soils are in areas that have silty surficial deposits 18 or more inches thick.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. The potential for surface runoff ranges from very low to very high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the mineral soil. Pedons that have a Cd range to moderately low.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas have been cleared and are used for growing hay, corn, small grains, some vegetables, and locally, fruit. Other areas are pastured. Wood lots contain basswood, sugar maple, white ash and other hardwoods.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern, central and Eastern New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont. MLRA 101, 142 and 144A. The series is moderately extensive.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Lewis County, New York, 1954.
REMARKS: This series extends to the cold limit of mesic families in areas where mean annual air temperature is 3 to 3-1/2 degrees below the 47 degree soil temperature limit, but where insulation by snow prevents low winter soil temperature and the expected lower annual soil temperature.
The SC file shows this series as being established in 1908. This could not be confirmed, but is being researched.
Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon:
1. Ochric Epipedon - the zone from the surface to a depth of 9 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 9 to 37 inches (Bw1, Bw2, BC1, and BC2 horizons).
3. Typic Eutrudepts - as evidenced by the cambic horizon and carbonates within a depth of 40 inches.
Lab data for the typical pedon: S85NY031-05.