LOCATION SUFFIELD MA+ME NHEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-silty over clayey, mixed, active, mesic Dystric Eutrudepts
TYPICAL PEDON: Suffield silt loam - idle field (Colors are for moist soil.)
Ap--0 to 7 inches; dark brown (10YR 3/3) silt loam; weak and moderate fine and medium granular structure; friable; many fine roots; strongly acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (4 to 10 inches thick)
Bw1--7 to 12 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silt loam; moderate thin platy structure parting to moderate fine granular; friable; common fine roots; strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick)
Bw2--12 to 24 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silt loam; moderate fine and medium blocky structure; firm; common fine roots; many fine pores; thin clay films in pores; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary. (10 to 15 inches thick)
Bw3--24 to 35 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silt loam; strong coarse blocky structure; very firm, nonsticky, slightly plastic; few fine roots; many fine pores; thin clay films in pores; moderately acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 15 inches thick)
2C--35 to 65 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) ped interiors, light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2) and olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) ped faces of varved silt and clay with very thin strata of very fine sand between varves arranged in coarse and very coarse prisms; overall texture of silty clay; very firm, sticky, plastic; very thin faint clay films in pores; slightly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Essex County, Massachusetts; town of Newbury, adjacent to a pit west of Old Rowley Road, 2,800 feet west-southwest of its junction with High Road. USGS Newburyport West quadrangle; 42 degrees, 45 minutes, 10 seconds N, 70 degrees, 51 minutes, 44 seconds W; NAD 27.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to the lithologic discontinuity ranges from 18 to 40 inches. The soil has 0 to 3 percent gravel of granite or quartzite. The soil ranges from strongly acid through slightly acid in the upper part of the solum and moderately acid through neutral in the lower part of the solum and in the substratum.
The Ap horizon has value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 or 3. Undisturbed soils have an A horizon, 1 or 2 inches thick. It has value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 1 or 2.
An E horizon up to 2 inches thick is in some pedons.
The B horizon above the lithologic discontinuity has hue of 7.5YR through 2.5Y, value of 3 through 5, and chroma of 2 through 8. Texture is silt loam with less than 18 percent clay. Some pedons have a 2B horizon with hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 2 through 4. It is silty clay loam or silty clay. Very thin clay films in pores and on vertical faces of peds are in some pedons.
The 2C horizon has hue of 2.5Y or 5Y, value of 4 through 6, and chroma of 2 through 4. It is silty clay loam or silty clay, and has firm or very firm consistence.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no other series in the same family.
The Belgrade, Berlin, Boothbay, Boxford, Brancroft, Buxton, Elmridge, Hartland, Melrose, Scio, and Unadilla series are similar soils in related families. Belgrade, Hartland, Scio, and Unadilla series have less than 18 percent clay in the control sections. Berlin, Boxford, and Buxton soils have more than 35 percent clay in the control sections. Elmridge and Melrose soils have fine sandy loam, sandy loam, or loam sola. Boothbay and Brancroft soils have 18 to 27 percent clay in the control sections.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Suffield soils are gently sloping to very steep soils on the tops and sides of ridges in dissected marine and lacustrine plains. Slope gradients are commonly 8 to 20 percent, but they may range from 3 to 45 percent or more on ridge sides and escarpment margins. The soils formed in marine or lacustrine sediments consisting of a silt loam mantle over silty clay loam or silty clay materials. Climate is humid and cool temperate. Mean annual temperature ranges from 47 to 55 degrees F.; mean annual precipitation ranges from 28 to 55 inches; and mean growing season ranges from l20 to l80 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Boxford, Hartland, and Melrose series and the Agawam, Maybid, Scitico, and Windsor soils on nearby landscapes. Agawam soils have a fine sandy loam solum over sandy substratum. The very poorly drained Maybid and poorly drained Scitico soils are members of the Suffield drainage catena. Windsor soils are sandy throughout.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well drained. Surface runoff is medium to very rapid. Permeability is moderate in the silty mantle and slow or very slow below.
USE AND VEGETATION: Mostly areas are cleared and are used for growing grass and legume hay, pasture, and corn silage. Common forest trees are sugar maple, oak, elm, white pine, and hemlock.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: MLRAs 144A, 145, and 149B in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and New York. The soil is of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Connecticut Valley, 1899.
REMARKS: Suffield soils are placed in Dystric Eutrochrepts on the basis of laboratory data from Buxton and Boxford soils.
Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:
1. Ochric epipedon - the zone from the surface of the soil to a depth of 7 inches (Ap horizon).
2. Cambic horizon - the zone from 7 to 35 inches (Bw1, Bw2 and Bw3 horizons).
3. Contrasting particle size class - the zone from 10 to 35 inches is silt loam with less than 18 percent clay and the 35 to 40 inch zone has more than 35 percent clay.