LOCATION RAYNHAM            VT CT MA NH NJ NY

RAYNHAM SERIES

TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-silty, mixed, active, nonacid, mesic Aeric Epiaquepts

TYPICAL PEDON: Raynham silt loam, on a gently sloping area in a hayfield. (Colors are for moist soil unless otherwise noted.)

Ap-- 0 to 6 inches; dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) silt loam; moderate fine and medium granular structure; friable; many roots; slightly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (4 to 13 inches thick.)

Bw-- 6 to 10 inches; light olive brown (2.5Y 5/4) silt loam; weak very fine and fine granular structure; friable; common roots; few fine distinct and prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6 and 10YR 5/8) masses of iron accumulation and few fine distinct light brownish gray (2.5Y 6/2) iron depletions; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick.)

Bg-- 10 to 17 inches; olive gray (5Y 5/2) silt loam; weak very fine and fine subangular blocky structure; friable; common roots; many fine to coarse prominent dark yellowish brown (10YR 4/4) and yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. (5 to 15 inches thick.)

B'w-- 17 to 22 inches; olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) silt loam; weak fine and medium subangular blocky structure; friable; few roots; few fine distinct olive gray (5Y 5/2) iron depletions and yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation; slightly acid; clear wavy boundary. (0 to 8 inches thick.)

C1-- 22 to 48 inches; olive gray (5Y 5/2) and dark grayish brown (2.5Y 4/2) silt loam; weak thick and very thick plate-like divisions; friable; few roots; many fine distinct and prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/4 and 10YR 5/6) and many fine distinct olive brown (2.5Y 4/4) masses of iron accumulation; neutral; clear wavy boundary. (5 to 40 inches thick.)

C2-- 48 to 72 inches; olive (5Y 4/3) silt loam; weak thick and very thick plate-like divisions; friable; few fine prominent yellowish brown (10YR 5/6) masses of iron accumulation; neutral.

TYPE LOCATION: Chittenden County, Vermont; Town of Milton, one mile south southwest of West Georgia, 205 feet east of the gravel road; Georgia Plains, VT USGS topographic quadrangle; Latitude 44 degrees, 41 minutes, 20 seconds, North, Longitude 73 degrees, 9 minutes, 37 seconds West, NAD 1927.

RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: The thickness of the solum ranges from 16 to 40 inches. Rock fragments range from 0 to 2 percent. Reaction ranges from strongly acid to neutral in the solum and from moderately acid to slightly alkaline in the substratum. Below a depth of 40 inches from the surface, some pedons range to moderately alkaline and are effervescent.

The Ap horizon has hue of 10YR or 2.5Y, value of 2 to 4, and chroma of 1 to 3. Texture is silt loam, silt, very fine sandy loam or loam. Some pedons have a thin A horizon or AB horizon.

The B horizon has hue of 5YR to 5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 4. It must have a matrix chroma 2 or less immediately below the A or Ap horizon or within 10 inches (inclusive) of the mineral surface. Texture is silt loam, silt, very fine sandy loam, or loamy very fine sand. Thin layers, 1 to 3 inches thick, of sand or gravelly sand, and silty clay loam are in some pedons. Structure is weak or moderate, very fine to medium granular or subangular blocky. Some B horizons have prismatic structure. Consistence is friable or firm.

The C horizon has hue of 5YR to 5Y, value of 4 to 6, and chroma of 1 to 6. Texture is silt loam, silt, or very fine sandy loam, and is commonly stratified (or varved). Thin layers of fine sand, sand, gravelly sand, or silty clay loam are in some pedons. Structure is massive or has plate-like divisions. Consistence is friable or firm.

COMPETING SERIES: There are no other soils currently in the same family.

Conneaut, Munson, Raypol, Scantic, Scitico, Tonowanda, Wallington, and Walpole soils are similar soils in related families. Conneaut soils have more than 18 percent clay in the particle-size control section. Munson, Scantic, and
Scitico soils have more than 18 percent clay in the lower part of the control
section. Raypol soils are more acid. Tonowanda soils have a matrix with chroma of 3 immediately below the A or Ap horizon to a depth of at least 10 inches below the mineral surface. Wallington soils have a fragipan. Walpole soils have more than 70 percent fine sand or coarser in the substratum.

GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: The Raynham soils are level to strongly sloping soils on glacial lake plains and terraces. They are in depressions and drainageways and on side slopes of swells and knolls. Slope ranges from 0 to 12 percent. The soils formed in silty estuarine or glaciolacustrine deposits. The mean annual precipitation ranges from 30 to 50, inches and the mean annual temperature ranges from 45 to 52 degrees F. The frost-free season ranges from 105 to 180 days.

GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: These are the Belgrade, Birdsall, Canandaigua, Eldridge, Enosburg, Hartland, Munson, Raypol, Scitico, Scio, Unadilla, and Walpole soils. The well drained Hartland and Unadilla, moderately well drained Belgrade and Scio, poorly and very poorly drained Canandaigua, and very poorly drained Birdsall soils are in a drainage sequence with Raynham soils. The Eldridge, Enosburg, Munson, Raypol, and Walpole soils are on nearby terraces or lake plains. Eldridge and Enosburg soils have sandy solums. Raypol and Walpole soils have sandy substratums.

DRAINAGE AND PERMEABILITY: Poorly drained. The potential for surface runoff is negligible to medium. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high to high in the solum and moderately low or moderately high in the substratum.

USE AND VEGETATION: Most cleared areas are used for hay and pasture. Some areas are drained and are used for corn or other row crops. In wooded areas the common trees are red maple, eastern white pine, white spruce, red spruce, elm, eastern hemlock, gray birch, sugar maple, white oak, balsam fir, and tamarack.

DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Vermont, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New York. MLRA's 100, 101, 139, 140, 142, 143, 144A, 144B, and 149B. The series is of moderate extent.

MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts.

SERIES ESTABLISHED: Franklin County, Massachusetts, 1964.

REMARKS: The Raynham series has been defined more narrowly to assure it meets the concept of poorly drained. A new series, Tonowanda, will take in pedons that were previously considered somewhat poorly.

Diagnostic horizons and features recognized in this pedon are:

a. Ochric epipedon - the zone from 0 to 6 inches (Ap horizon).
b. Cambic horizon - the zone from 6 to 22 inches (Bw and Bg horizons).
c. Aeric feature - in 50 percent or more of the matrix, a hue of 10YR or yellower and a value and chroma, moist, of 3 or more. (Bw and B'w horizon).