LOCATION PITTSTOWN MA+NH NY RI VT
Established Series
Rev. DGG-WHT-DAS
12/2012
PITTSTOWN SERIES
The Pittstown series consists of moderately well drained soils formed in lodgement till derived mainly from slate, phyllite, shale, and schist. These soils are very deep to bedrock and moderately deep to a densic contact. They are nearly level through moderately steep soils on uplands. Slope ranges from 0 through 25 percent. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the mineral solum and moderately low or moderately high in the substratum. Mean annual temperature is about 49 degrees F. (9 degrees C.), and mean annual precipitation is about 45 inches (1143 millimeters).
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Aquic Dystrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Pittstown loam, cultivated field. (Colors are for moist soil unless noted.)
Ap --0 to 10 inches (0 to 25 centimeters); very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) loam, light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) dry; moderate medium granular structure; friable; 10 percent phyllite fragments; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary.
Bw1 --10 to 18 inches (25 to 46 centimeters); olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) loam; weak medium granular structure; friable; 10 percent phyllite fragments; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary.
Bw2 --18 to 29 inches (46 to 74 centimeters); olive (5Y 4/3) channery loam; massive; friable; 15 percent phyllite fragments; common medium prominent dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) masses of iron accumulations and common medium distinct gray (5Y 5/1) iron depletions; very strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary.
Cd --29 to 65 inches (74 to 165 centimeters); olive (5Y 5/3) channery loam; massive; very firm, brittle; 20 percent phyllite fragments; many coarse prominent dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) masses of iron accumulation and many coarse distinct olive gray (5Y 5/2) iron depletions; very strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Bristol County, Massachusetts; Town of Somerset, 400 feet north of Wilbur Avenue, and 900 feet east of Brayton Point Road. Fall River, MA quadrangle: Latitude 41 degrees, 43 minutes, 25 seconds N. and Longitude 71 degrees, 10 minutes, 35 seconds W., NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the mineral solum and depth to dense substratum ranges from 20 through 30 inches (50 through 76 centimeters), but the range currently includes 15 through 30 inches (38 through 76 centimeters). The solum in the fine earth fraction is silt loam, loam, or very fine sandy loam with more than 65 percent silt plus very fine sand. Rock fragments consist of dark phyllite, slate, and schist. Rock fragments, by volume, larger than 10 inches range from 0 through 20 percent in the surface and 0 through 5 percent in the subsoil and substratum. 3 through 10 inch size fragments range from 0 through 15 percent in surface, 0 through 10 percent in the subsoil, and 0 through 15 percent in the substratum. Fragments less than 3 inches range from 5 through 25 percent in the surface, 5 through 25 percent in the subsoil, and 15 through 30 percent in the substratum. The soil, below the A or Ap horizon and above a depth of 30 inches (76 centimeters), is very strongly acid through moderately acid where not limed, and ranges from very strongly acid through slightly acid below a depth of 30 inches (76 centimeters).
Some pedons have an O horizon underlain by a thin A horizon. The A horizon commonly has hue of 10YR but the range includes 2.5Y, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of l through 3.
The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR, value of 2 through 4, and chroma of 2 or 3. Structure is granular. Consistence is friable or very friable.
Some pedons have a thin E horizon.
The upper part of the Bw horizon has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 through 6. The lower part of the Bw horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 3 through 6. Redoximorphic depletions and concentrations are commonly few to many in the lower part but the range includes few or common in the upper part in some pedons. Structure commonly is subangular blocky but the range includes granular or massive in some pedons. Consistence is friable or very friable.
Some pedons have a friable BC or C horizon above the Cd horizon. They have hue of 10YR through 5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture is similar to the Cd horizon.
The Cd horizon has hue of 10YR through 5Y, value of 4 or 6, and chroma of 2 through 4. It is silt loam, very fine sandy loam, or loam in the fine-earth fraction. It is firm through extremely firm. The horizon is normally massive, but may have weak plate-like divisions.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the
Chautauqua,
Pompton,
Rainbow,
Sutton,
Wapping,
Wilbraham, and
Woodbridge series. Chautauqua, Pompton, Sutton, and Wapping soils do not have densic materials in the substratum.
Ludlow soils have hue of 5YR or redder in the Bw horizon. Rainbow soils have a lithologic discontinuity. Woodbridge soils have less than 65 percent silt and very fine sand in the B horizon. Wilbraham soils are poorly drained, but formed in reddish parent material so that they do not exhibit the low chroma matrix colors required for Aquepts.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Pittstown soils are nearly level through moderately steep soils on glaciated uplands. Slope ranges from 0 through 25 percent. The soils developed in loamy till derived principally from dark phyllite, slate, or schist. Mean annual air temperature ranges from 45 through 52 degrees F. (7 through 11 degrees C.), and mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 through 50 inches (1016 through 1270 millimeters). The frost-free period ranges from 120 to 180 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: The well drained
Bernardston, poorly drained
Stissing, and very poorly drained
Mansfield soils are associated in a drainage sequence. The excessively drained
Quonset and the somewhat excessively drained
Warwick soils are on nearby outwash plains, terraces, eskers, and kames. The well drained
Dutchess soils, which do not have a dense substratum, the shallow to bedrock
Nassau and
Kearsarge soils and the moderately deep to bedrock
Cardigan soils are closely associated on the uplands.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Moderately well drained. Surface runoff is medium. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high or high in the mineral solum and moderately low or moderately high in the substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly forested. Cleared areas are used for growing hay and pasture in support of dairy farming. Principal trees are northern red, white and scarlet oak, red and sugar maple, gray and yellow birch, white ash, eastern white pine, and eastern hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Glaciated uplands in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont, and eastern New York. MLRA 144A. The series is of moderate extent, estimated to be about 96,000 acres.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Sullivan County, New York, 1938.
REMARKS: This revision reflects changes to the range in characteristics as well as general updating to metric units. In the past, the Pittstown series was mapped in areas that are now considered frigid. These areas require investigation are not included in the modern range of the series.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 10 inches (0 to 25 centimeters) (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 10 to 29 inches (25 to 74 centimeters) (Bw horizons).
3. Densic material- the zone from 29 through 65 inches (74 through 165 centimeters) (Cd horizon).
4. Aquic subgroup - presence of low chroma iron depletions at 18 inches (46 centimeters) (Bw1 horizon).
5) Particle-size control section - the zone from 10 through 29 inches (25 through 74 centimeters) (Bw horizons).
ADDITIONAL DATA: Full characterization data for sample no. 78NH005025 and 78NH019010. Pedons analyzed by the NSSL, Lincoln, NE.
National Cooperative Soil Survey
U.S.A.