LOCATION PITTSFIELD MA +NY VTEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Dystric Eutrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Pittsfield loam cultivated, in an area of Pittsfield loam, 3 to 8 percent slopes at an elevation of about 797 feet. (Color is for moist soil unless otherwise stated.)
Ap-- 0 to 9 inches, very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) loam, light brownish gray (10YR 6/2) dry; moderate fine and medium granular structure; very friable; many fine and medium roots; less than 5 percent fine schist channers; neutral; abrupt smooth boundary. (5 to 10 inches thick)
Bw1-- 9 to 15 inches, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) loam; weak fine and medium granular structure; very friable; common fine roots; 10 percent fine schist channers; common earthworm casts and channels; neutral; clear smooth boundary.
Bw2-- 15 to 25 inches, brown (10YR 4/3) fine sandy loam; weak fine and medium granular structure; very friable; common fine roots; 10 percent fine schist channers; common earthworm casts and channels; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bw horizons is 6 to 25 inches)
BC-- 25 to 32 inches, olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) gravelly sandy loam; very weak thick platy structure; friable; common fine roots; 15 percent fine gravel and fine schist channers, quartzite and limestone ghosts; common earthworm casts and channels; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (0 to 15 inches thick)
C1-- 32 to 43 inches, olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) gravelly sandy loam; massive; friable; very few fine roots; 20 percent fine gravel and fine schist channers, quartzite, and strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) limestone ghosts; neutral; clear smooth boundary. (10 to 20 inches thick)
C2-- 43 to 65 inches, olive gray (5Y 4/2) gravelly fine sandy loam; massive; friable; 15 percent fine gravel and schist channers and partly weathered limestone; slightly effervescent; slightly alkaline.
TYPE LOCATION: Berkshire County, Massachusetts; Town of Great Barrington; 125 feet south of Cross (Seekonk) Road at a point 1300 feet west of the intersection of Division Street and Seekonk Road. 42 degrees 12 minutes 52 seconds N., 73 degrees 24 minutes 19 seconds W.; USGS 7 1/2 minute Great Barrington quadrangle; NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of solum ranges from 20 to 45 inches. Bedrock is deeper than 65 inches. Rock fragments consist primarily of schist and weathered limestone. Rock fragments range from 0 to 20 percent in the A horizon and from 5 to 34 percent in the B and C horizons. Cobbles typically occupy 0 to 15 percent of the A, 0 to 10 percent of the B and 0 to 15 percent of the C horizon. Gravel content typically ranges from 0 to 15 percent in the A, from 5 to 15 percent in the B and from 5 to 20 percent in the C horizon. Gravel content in the C horizon can range up to 34 percent but the horizon has less than 35 percent rock fragments. Depth to carbonates ranges from 40 to 72 inches. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid in the A; commonly moderately acid to neutral in the Ap but the range includes very strongly acid; from strongly acid to neutral in the upper part of the B horizon and from moderately acid to neutral in the lower part of the B horizon; and from moderately acid to moderately alkaline in the C horizon. Reaction is less acid than strongly acid and base saturation is more than 60 percent in some part of the 10 to 30 inch depth.
The Ap and A have a hue of 10YR, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 1 to 3. They are loam or fine sandy loam. They have weak or moderate fine and medium granular structure and friable or very friable consistence.
Some pedons have a thin E, EB, or BE horizon below the A horizon. It has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 4. They are loam or fine sandy loam. Structure is weak fine or medium granular, or weak fine and medium subangular blocky and consistence is friable or very friable.
The Bw horizons have hue of 5YR to 2.5Y, values of 4 or 5 and chroma of 2 to 6. Texture is fine sandy loam or loam. Structure is weak fine or medium granular, or commonly weak fine and medium subangular blocky but the range includes weak coarse subangular blocky. Consistence is friable or very friable.
The BC horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. It is sandy loam, fine sandy loam, loam or gravelly or channery analogs. It is massive or has weak thick or very thick platy structure. Chroma of 2 is lithochromic and not related to wetness. Some pedons have a few high chroma redoximorphic concentrations in the lower part of the BC horizon.
The C horizons have hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 3 to 5, and chroma of 2 to 4. They are loam, fine sandy loam, sandy loam, or their gravelly or channery analogs. Pockets or lenses of loamy sand or sand are in some pedons. The C horizon is massive or appears in the form of non-pedogenically derived plates. It is friable or firm.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Herkimer, Lowville, Reger (tentative), Spoolsville, Urne and Wakeman series. Nellis and Stockbridge soils are in a closely related family.
Herkimer soils have 20 to 60 percent fragments of dark shale in the lower part of the series control section. Lowville soils have silt loam textures in the solum. Spoolsville soils formed in residuum and are 40 to 60 inches to a paralithic contact. Reger, Urne and Wakeman soils formed in residuum and have a paralithic contact at 20 to 40 inches.
Stockbridge soils have a firm till substratum within 40 inches. Nellis soils effervesce at depths less than 40 inches from the soil surface.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Pittsfield soils are nearly level to very steep on glaciated uplands associated with limestone valleys. Slopes are commonly 3 to 25 percent but range from 0 to 60 percent. The soils formed in stony, moderately coarse textured, calcareous till derived primarily from schist and weathered limestone. Mean annual temperature is 45 to 50 degrees F. Mean annual precipitation commonly is 44 to 50 inches but the range includes as low as 26 inches in some places east of Adirondack Mountains in the Champlain Valley of New York. Average length of the growing season is 120 to 160 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the similar Nellis and Stockbridge series and the Amenia, Groton, Hoosic, Kendaia, Lyons, Oakville and Quonset soils on nearby landscapes. The moderately well drained Amenia, poorly drained Kendaia, and very poorly drained Lyons soils are associated in a drainage sequence. Groton soils formed in water sorted calcareous sand and gravel materials on outwash plains and terraces. Hoosic and Quonset soils formed in water sorted channery or slaty materials on outwash plains and terraces.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Surface runoff ranges from low to high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately low to high.
USE AND VEGETATION: About 40 percent is cleared and used for cropland and pasture in support of dairy farming. About 60 percent is forested to sugar maple, red maple, beech, red oak, ash, basswood, hemlock, white pine and white, yellow, gray, and black birch.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Limestone valleys and nearby uplands in MLRAs 101 and 142 in New York and Vermont and MLRA 144A in Massachusetts, eastern New York, and southern Vermont. The series is of moderate extent, estimated at 15,000 to 20,000 acres.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Berkshire County, Massachusetts, 1923.
REMARKS: Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric Epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 9 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic Horizon - the zone from 9 inches to 32 inches (Bw1, Bw2, and BC horizons)
3. Base saturation greater than 60 percent within the 9 to 32 inch depth (Bw1, Bw2 & BC) horizons).
4. Particle-size control section from 10 to 40 inches that is coarse-loamy (Bw1, Bw2, BC, and C1 horizons).
5. Carbonates below a depth of 40 inches (C2 horizon).
6. Mesic temperature regime.