LOCATION QUAKERTOWN NJEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Typic Hapludults
TYPICAL PEDON: Quakertown silt loam - pasture. (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 8 inches, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) silt loam; moderate medium granular structure; friable; many roots; 5 percent coarse fragments; strongly acid; gradual smooth boundary. (6 to 10 inches thick)
A2--8 to 12 inches, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) silt loam; weak medium subangular blocky structure; friable; many roots; 5 percent coarse fragments; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (0 to 5 inches thick)
B1--12 to 16 inches, brown (7.5YR 4/4) silt loam; weak coarse and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; common roots; 5 percent coarse fragments; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (3 to 6 inches thick)
B21t--16 to 22 inches, brown (7.5YR 4/4) heavy silt loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; thin discontinuous clay films on peds; 5 percent coarse fragments; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (4 to 12 inches thick)
B22t--22 to 32 inches, brown (7.5YR 4/4) light silty clay loam; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; firm; discontinuous clay films; 10 percent coarse fragments; strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (5 to 12 inches thick)
C1--32 to 38 inches, dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) channery silt loam; massive; firm; 30 percent coarse fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (5 to 15 inches thick)
C2--38 to 48 inches, shattered and weathered sandy siltstone and some thin bedded argillite with interstices filled with fines. (0 to 15 inches thick)
R--48 inches, fine grained hard sandstone bedrock.
TYPE LOCATION: Mercer County, New Jersey. 1.7 miles northwest of Route 518 on Amwell Road, Stoutsburg, about 200 feet north of farm lane on east side of road.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The solum ranges from 18 to 36 inches in thickness and the argillic horizon from 10 to 20 inches. Depth to hard rock is 36 to 60 inches. Coarse fragments are dominantly of weathered fine grained sandstone but includes siltstone and argillite. They are 5 to 30 percent by volume of the A and B horizons and 20 to 70 percent of the C horizon and average less than 35 percent in the textural control section. The soil is strongly acid throughout unless limed. The Ap horizon is dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2), or dark brown (10YR 4/3, 10YR 3/3, or 7.5YR 4/2) and is silt loam or channery silt loam. Color value of the dry soil is 6 or higher. The Bt horizon is strong brown (7.5YR 5/6), brown (7.5YR 5/4 or 10YR 4/3), yellowish brown (10YR 5/4), or dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4). It is heavy silt loam, heavy loam, clay loam or light silty clay loam. It has weak or moderate medium or coarse subangular blocky structure. It is firm and is brittle in up to 60 percent of the horizon in the lower part. The C horizon is brown (7.5YR 5/4), dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) or dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) fine sandy loam, silt loam, clay loam or silty clay loam.
COMPETING SERIES: The Quakertown series is a member of a large family of which the closest competitors are the Allenwood, Bedington, Bucks, Caylor, Chester, Chilmark, Clymer, Edgemont, Edneyville, Gilpin, Manassas, Meadowville, Murrill, Rayne and Thurmont series. Allenwood, Caylow, Meadowville, Murrill and Thurmont soils have argillic horizons that extend below a 40 inch depth. Bedington soils contain more than 35 percent coarse fragments. The Bucks soils have friable silty upper horizons 15 to 36 inches thick, and firm silty lower horizons that contain many shale fragments. Chester, Chilmark, Clymer, Edgemont, Edneyville and Manasses have control sections of heavy sandy loam, light loam, sandy clay loam or clay loam that average more thatn 30 percent sand. The Filpin soils have bedrock within a 40 inch depth. Rayne soils have argillic horizons 20 to 30 inches thick and sola more than 40 inches thick. Other similar soils are in the Lansdale series which has less that 18 percent clay in the control section.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Quakertown soils have undulating topography and slope gradients are 2 to 18 percent. They formed in residuum weathered from fine grained sandstone, sandy siltstone, and thin bedded argillite. Average annual temperature is 50 to degrees F. Mean annual precipitation ranges from 40 to 48 inches. Frost free days range from 160 to 190.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Bucks soils listed as a competing series and the Chalfont, Croton, Lawrenceville and Penn soils. Chalfont, Croton and Lawrenceville soils have fragipans. Penn soils have red shale bedrock within 40 inches.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Surface runoff is moderate. Permeability is moderately slow throughout the soil.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most of the soil is cleared and used for growing corn, small grain and grasses. Forest is oak, hickory, yellow poplar and ash.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Mainly in the Northern Piedmont area of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, possibly in Maryland and Virginia. The soil is moderately extensive, about 30,000 acres.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Hunterdon County, New Jersey, 1970.
REMARKS: The Quakertown soils were classified as Gray Brown Podzolic soils in the 1938 system.
10/2003 Added active cation-exchange activity class based on associated soils and two pedons from the NRCS Lincoln lab. Previously revised by CFE-JEW.