LOCATION CONSTABLE NYEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Sandy-skeletal, mixed, frigid, ortstein Typic Haplorthods
TYPICAL PEDON: Constable gravelly loamy sand-idle land. (Colors are for moist broken soil unless specified otherwise.)
Ap--0 to 6 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) gravelly loamy sand; weak fine granular; very friable; many roots; 30 percent gravel; extremely acid; abrupt smooth boundary. (6 to 9 inches thick)
A2--6 to 8 inches; discontinuous pocket of pinkish gray (5YR 6/2) gravelly medium sand; single grain; loose; few roots; 30% gravel; extremely acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (Absent where incorporated in Ap, to 6 inches)
B21m--8 to 11 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/2) very gravelly loamy sand; 80 percent massive and cemented; 20 percent weak fine granular and friable with hard modules; few roots; 30 percent gravel and cobbles; extremely acid; clear wavy boundary. (2 to 6 inches thick)
B22ir--11 to 15 inches; dark reddish brown (5YR 3/4) very gravelly loamy sand; 70 percent weak fine granular and friable with hard nodules; 30 percent massive cemented masses 1/2 to 2 inches thick vertically and 2 to 12 inches across horizontally; no roots; 35 percent gravel and cobbles; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary.
(3 to 6 inches thick)
B3--15 to 24 inches; brown (7.5 YR 5/4) very gravelly sand; single grain; loose; no roots; 40 percent gravel and cobbles; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary. (8 to 12 inches thick)
C--24 to 40 inches; grayish brown (10YR 5/2) very gravelly and cobbly sand; single grain; loose; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Franklin County, New York; 1.3 miles S.E. of Village of Burke, 900 feet southeast of cemetary by Alder Brook.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Depth to bedrock is more than 40 inches. In some pedons, the B horizon has tongues extending to 36 inches with C horizon between the tongues at 20 inches. In others the B-C boundary is wavy and lies at depths ranging from 20 to 36 inches among pedons. Gravel and cobblestones exceed 35 percent of the volume from 10 to 40 inches, within a matrix of sands. Mean annual soil temperature at 20 inches is less than 47 degrees F., but mean summer temperature is more than 59 degrees F. Organic matter exceeds 2 percent to a depth of at least 13 inches or the Ap horizon qualifies as a spodic horizon.
In undisturbed areas, the soil has 3 to 7 inches of black (10YR 2/1) humus layer, and a gray (10YR 5/1) and pinkish gray (7.5YR 7/2) and A2 underlies it abruptly and ranges from 4 to 12 inches in thickness, In cleared areas, the Ap ranges from very dark brown (10YR 2/2) to grayish brown (10YR 5/2) depending upon period and intensity of tillage. It ranges from sand to fine sandy loam with amounts of gravel or cobbles ranging from less than 5 percent to more than 35 percent. It ranges from structureless to weak fine granular and from loose to friable consistence. It is strongly or extremely acid if unlimed. Remnants of the A2 are present below Ap horizons of some pedons.
The B horizon ranges from black (5YR 2/1) to brown (7.5YR 4/4) at the top and grades with depth to brown (10YR 5/3) or yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) where it joins C. It ranges from gravelly to very cobbly a nd from sands to loamy sands. Cemented masses in the upper 12 inches underlie more than 50 percent of the area of each pedon and in some pedons form a continuous subhorizon. Uncemented parts are weakly granular to single grain, friable to loose, and strongly to extremely acid.
The C horizons are 50 to 75 percent fragments by volume, sands filling the larger spaces among them.
COMPETING SERIES: No other series has been classified as a member of the same family. There are similar soils lacking ortstein in 50 percent or more of each pedon. Wiasha also lacks the ortstein and also lacks fines filling spaces among coarse fragments. Wallace and Au Train have ortsteins but lack the coarse skeleton of Constable. A similar soil in Nova Scotia has been named Gibralter by the Canadian Soil Survey.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Constable soils are on glacial outwash terraces and valley trains where coarse skeleton from siliceous igneous rocks and sandstone are a major part of the material. Slopes range from 0 to 25 percent. Mean annual temperature ranges from 38 to 44 degrees F.; mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 45 inches; frost free season ranges from 70 to 140 days.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: Constable is intimately associated with Colton soils, commonly in complexes. Adams and associates are on sands with little gravel, and Becket, Hermon or Worth and their associates are on till of the same regions.
DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Well to excessively drained. Runoff is slow to rapid; permeability is moderately slow in the ortstein layer and is rapid in the A and C horizons.
USE AND VEGETATION: Extensive areas, mainly complexes of Colton and Constable soils, are idle and support birch, poplar, or pine regrowth or are covered with spires, bracken, and blueberries. Forested areas have pine, sugar maple and beech. Farmed areas are used mainly for grass hay or pasture.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Northern New York and probably northern
New England. The aggregate acreage is probably moderately extensive, though most is mapped as a complex or undifferentiated unit with Colton soils.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Franklin County, New York, 1955. Named for the Village of Constableville, Lewis County, New York.