LOCATION ROYCE NJEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Humic Hapludults
TYPICAL PEDON: Royce silt loam-cultivated. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap--0 to 8 inches, dark reddish brown (5YR 3/3) silt loam; weak medium granular structure; friable; many fine roots; many medium tubular pores; 5 percent white quartzose pebbles; slightly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 10 inches thick)
Bt1--8 to 12 inches, dark reddish brown (2.5YR 3/4) silt loam; weak fine granular structure; friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; few fine roots; common medium tubular pores; few thin discontinuous clay films in pores and on faces of peds; 5 percent white quartzose pebbles; slightly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (1 to 6 inches thick)
Bt2--12 to 20 inches, dark reddish borwn (2.5YR 3/4) clay loam, reddish brown (2.5YR 5/4) dry; moderate medium subangular blocky structure; friable, slightly sticky, slightly plastic; thin patchy clay films on faces of peds and in pores; 10 percent white quartzose pebbles; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (7 to 20 inches thick)
Bt3--20 to 30 inches, reddish brown (2.5YR 4/4) clay loam; moderate coarse subangular blocky structure; friable; thin discontinuous clay films on faces of peds; 5 percent white quartzose pebbles and some shale fragments; strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 14 inches thick)
Bt4--30 to 48 inches, reddish brown (2.5YR 4/4) and dusky red (10R 3/4) shaly loam; weak coarse subangular blocky structure; firm; thin patchy clay films on shale fragments and on faces of peds; 25 percent shale fragments; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (10 to 20 inches thick)
R--to 48 inches, dusky red (10R 3/4) partly weathered shale, relatively undisturbed.
TYPE LOCATION: Somerset County, New Jersey; south of Amwell Road and 75 yeards east of Grouser Road, 1 mile west of Middlebush, New Jersey.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness of the solum ranges from 40 to 60 inches. Depth to bedrock ranges from 40 to more than 70 inches. Coarse fragments to a depth of 30 inches, range from 5 to 20 percent gravel sized fragments composed mostly of rounded quartzose gravel, but including a few shale or siltstone chips. Below a depth of 30 inches coarse fragments range from 15 to 60 percent and are dominantly shale or siltstone chips which typically increase with increasing depth. Reaction ranges from strongly to very strongly acid except where limed. The A horizons are dark reddish brown (5YR 3/3) or (5YR 3/4). Dry values are 5 or less. Texture is loam and silt loam or gravelly equivalents. The Bt horizons range from red (5YR 4/6) to dusky red (10R 3/4). Textures range from heavy loam to light silty clay loam with shaly equivalents and with 40 to 60 percent silt. Structure is weak or moderate, medium or coarse blocky or prismatic. Consistence is friable to firm. The C horizon when present are similar in color, texture and consistence to the lower part of the B horizon, but are very shaly and are massive.
COMPETING SERIES: These are the Onalaska, Porters, and Tusquitee series in the same family and the Allenwood, Birdsboro, Bucks, Leck Kill, Manassas, and Ungers series in related familes. Onalaska soils have 10YR hues throughout the profile. Porters soils are 7.5YR or yellower throughout. Tusquitee soils have few to common mica flakes and coarse fragments of schists, gneiss and granite. Allenwood, Birdsboro, Bucks, Leck Kill, Manassas, and Ungers soils all have Ap horizon colors with values of 4 or more. In addition, Allenwood and Birdsboro soils are composed of stratified and sorted materials. Bucks and Leck Kill soils have sola less than 40 inches thick. Ungers soils have less than 40 percent silt in the B horizon.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Royce soils are on undulating rolling uplands. They developed in a thin mantle of reddish weathered alluvial-colluvial materials underlain by weathered red to brownish interbedded shale, sandstone or siltstone bedrock. Average annual air temperature ranges from 50 to 55 degrees F.; precipitiation from 40 to 48 inches; frost free days from 160 to 190 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: In addition to the competing Bucks soils, Klinesville, Penn and Readington soils are closely associated with Royce soils in the landscape. Klinesville soils are less than 20 inches to shle bedrock and Penn soils are 20 to 40 inches to shale bedrock. Readington soils have a fragipan.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Royce soils are well drained. They have slow to rapid runoff depending on slope. They have moderate permeability in the upper horizons and have moderately slow permeability below.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas of Royce soils have been cleared and used for cultivated crops. They are well suited for all general crops including corn, soybeans, small grains, pasture and hay. Specialized crops such as vegetables, tree fruits and nursery stock also do well. The native vegetation was hardwood forests of white oak, black oak, red oak, ash, and hickory. Areas that have been idle for a number of years are in various stages of secondary succession with red cedar, dogwood and ash the dominant trees.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Central New Jersey. The series is inextensive with a total of roughly 8,000 acres.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Morgantown, West Virginia
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Somerset County, New Jersey 1972.