LOCATION VARICK NYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Fine-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Mollic Endoaqualfs
TYPICAL PEDON: Varick silt loam, on a 1 percent slope in a pasture. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)
Ap--0 to 7 inches; very dark brown (10YR 2/2) moist and broken, very dark grayish brown (10YR 3/2) rubbed, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) dry; silt loam; moderate medium and coarse granular structure; friable; many fine roots; 5 percent rock fragments; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (5 to 11 inches thick.)
Eg--7 to 10 inches; gray (10YR 5/1) silt loam; moderate medium and coarse blocky structure; friable; common fine roots; 5 percent rock fragments; common medium distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron oxides, and common medium distinct light gray (10YR 6/1) areas of iron depletions; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 3 inches thick)
Btg1--10 to 16 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) silty clay loam; moderate medium and coarse blocky structure; firm; sticky; few fine roots; light grayish brown (10YR 6/2) clay films on faces of peds and in pores; 5 percent rock fragments; common medium distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron oxides, and common medium distinct light gray (10YR 6/1) areas of iron depletions; neutral; gradual wavy boundary.
Btg2--16 to 23 inches; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) silty clay loam; moderate medium and coarse blocky structure; firm; sticky; few fine roots; grayish brown (2.5Y 5/2) clay films on faces of peds and in pores; 10 percent rock fragments; common medium prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) and common medium distinct light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) masses of iron oxides; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Btg horizons is 9 to 16 inches.)
Cg--23 to 29 inches; gray (10YR 5/1) silt loam; common medium distinct yellowish brown and light gray mottles; weak coarse and very coarse platy structure parting into weak blocks; friable; slightly sticky; 30 percent rock fragments; common medium distinct yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron oxides, and common medium faint light gray (10YR 6/1) areas of iron depletions; slightly effervescent, slightly alkaline; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick)
2R--29 inches; dark gray (2.5Y 4/1) brittle shale bedrock which cannot be cut with a spade; upper 12 inches weathered and somewhat broken; strongly effervescent.
TYPE LOCATION: Cayuga County, New York; At Town Line between Ledyard and Genoa Towns; 1000 feet east of New York Highway 90, 2,400 feet south of Rafferty Road. USGS Sheldrake, NY topographic quadrangle; latitude 42 degrees, 40 minutes, 42 seconds N. and longitude 76 degrees, 38 minutes, 59 seconds W. NAD 1927.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Thickness to bedrock ranges from 20 to 40 inches and commonly corresponds with thickness of solum. Free carbonates are common within 6 inches above the bedrock surface. Rock fragments are dominantly soft shale but includes sandstone and limestone in some pedons. Rock fragments range from 2 percent by volume in the surface horizons, to as much as 50 percent just above the bedrock, but average less than 35 percent in the particle-size control section. Some shale fragments disperse upon shaking with Calgon. Reaction in the solum ranges from moderately acid through neutral and from slightly acid through slightly alkaline in the substratum. Chroma of 2 or less occupies more than 50 percent of the matrix from the base of the A or Ap horizon to 30 inches.
The thickness of the A horizon in undisturbed areas ranges from 5 to 7 inches, and the lower boundary is abrupt. The series includes only soils in which the Ap or A horizon is less than 1/3 the thickness of solum or is less than 10 inches thick.
The Ap and A horizons have hue of 10YR or 7.5YR, value of 2 or 3, and chroma of 1 or 2. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is loam, silt loam, or silty clay loam.
The Eg horizon, if present, has chroma of 2 or less with few to common redoximorphic features. Texture of the fine-earth fraction ranges from loam to silty clay loam.
The Btg horizon has hue of 5YR through 5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 1 or 2. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is loam, silt loam, clay loam, or silty clay loam. Structure is moderate to strong angular or subangular blocky. Consistence is firm or friable. Redoximorphic features of higher chroma than the matrix range from few to many but are less than 50 percent of the mass. Clay films of 0, 1, or 2 chroma coat ped faces and line pores.
The C horizon, if present, is similar to B horizons in color, texture, and consistence. It has greater amounts of shale fragments, and is massive or retains plat-like divisions inherited from the shale bedrock. The contact with bedrock is either lithic or paralithic.
The 2R horizon is dominantly shale but includes some pedons that are underlain with siltstone, sandstone or limestone.
COMPETING SERIES: The Dundas, Ilion, Lantz, Olmstead, and Orio series were members of the same family, but have not been reclassified to the 7th Edition 'Keys to Soil Taxonomy'. All of these soils are more than 40 inches deep to bedrock.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Varick series occupies uniform to slightly concave areas on upland till plains. The regolith is glacial till or congeliturbate strongly influenced by clayey shales, or by lake sediments from such shales, intermixed with glacial drift of limestone and sandstone. Bedrock is at a depth of 20 to 40 inches. Slope ranges fro 0 to 8 percent. The climate is humid and cool temperate. Mean annual rainfall ranges from 30 to 45 inches; mean annual temperature ranges from 46 to 50 degrees F.; and the frost-free period ranges from 140 to 180 days. The elevation ranges from 200 to 1500 feet above sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: Varick is a drainage associate of the moderately well drained Aurora and somewhat poorly drained Angola soils. It occurs in the same general area as the very deep Honeoye, Ontario, Lansing, Cazenovia and Danley soils on glacial till plains and Schoharie, Hudson and Dunkirk soils are nearby on lake plains.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Poorly drained. The potential for surface runoff is low or very low. Permeability is moderate in the surface layer and slow in the subsoil and substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: Most areas have been cleared. Pasture and hay are the principal uses of cleared areas. Corn and oats are grown on a small acreage. A significant acreage is idle. Red maple, elm and associated wetness-tolerant species of northern hardwood areas dominate existing woodlots.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: The Ontario plain and adjacent valleys of the northern part of the glaciated Allegheny Plateau and the western part of the Mohawk Valley in New York. MLRA's 101 and 140. The Varick soils are of small extent.
MLRA SOIL SURVEY REGIONAL OFFICE (MO) RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Cayuga County, New York, 1966. Named for Town of Varick, Seneca County, New York.
REMARKS: Unclassified soils whose Ap horizons exceed one-third the thickness of relatively thin solums are inclusions in mapping units of the Varick series. Varick soils were previously classified in the great group of Ochraqualfs. Because of changes established in the 5th and 6th editions of `Keys to Soil Taxonomy' these soils now classify in the new great group of Endoaqualfs. Competing series in the same family are expected to increase as similar soils are reclassified. Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon are:
a) Argillic horizon - from 10 to 23 inches (Btg1 and Btg2 horizons)
b) Mollic subgroup - as evidenced by moist values of 3 or less and dry values of 5 or less (Ap horizon) and is too thin for a mollisol
c) Aqualfs suborder - as evidenced by low chroma (2 or less) matrix or ped face colors accompanied by redoximorphic concentrations in the upper 12.5cm of the argillic horizon (Btg1 horizon)
Soil Interpretation Record No.: NY0155