LOCATION WORTH NY PAEstablished Series
TAXONOMIC CLASS: Coarse-loamy, isotic, frigid Typic Fragiorthods
TYPICAL PEDON: Worth stony fine sandy loam on a 12 percent slope in a idle grass meadow with occasional large stones on the surface. (Colors are for the moist soils).
Ap-- 0 to 7 inches, dark grayish brown (10YR 4/2) stony fine sandy loam; weak fine and medium granular structure; friable; many fine roots; 25 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; clear smooth boundary. (5 to 10 inches thick)
Bs1-- 7 to 12 inches, strong brown (7.5YR 5/6) stony fine sandy loam; very weak very fine granular structure; very friable; few fine roots; many fine pores; 25 percent rock fragments; very strongly acid; gradual wavy boundary.
Bs2-- 12 to 20 inches, yellowish brown (10YR 5/4) stony fine sandy loam; weak fine granular structure; friable; many fine pores; 25 percent rock fragments; very strongly acid; clear wavy boundary. (Combined thickness of the Bs horizons is 6 to 26 inches.)
E-- 20 to 26 inches, brown (10YR 5/3) stony sandy loam; weak thin platy structure; friable; few fine pores; 25 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; abrupt wavy boundary. (0 to 10 inches thick)
Bx-- 26 to 45 inches, brown (7.5YR 4/3) very channery fine sandy loam; moderate very coarse prismatic structure; prisms are 18 to 30 inches across; very firm and brittle; common fine pores; clay linings in some pores; cleavage along prisms faces decreases to none with depth; prism faces have brown (10YR 5/3) fine sand coats; 35 percent rock fragments; strongly acid; diffuse wavy boundary. (15 to 32 inches thick)
Cd-- 45 to 72 inches, dark brown to brown (7.5YR 4/2) very channery fine sandy loam; very weak coarse lens-like plates; very firm; few fine pores; 35 rock fragments; strongly acid.
TYPE LOCATION: Lewis County, New York; 1 1/4 mile east of North Osceola at south edge of road on land form sloping 12 percent to the west.
RANGE IN CHARACTERISTICS: Solum thickness ranges from 40 to 65 inches. Depth to the fragipan ranges from 18 to 36 inches. Rock fragments range from 10 to 35 percent by volume above the fragipan and from 25 to 50 percent in the fragipan and substratum. Rock fragments are mainly channers, gravel, flagstones, and stones. Silt content ranges from 25 to 50 percent in the B horizon above the fragipan.
In undisturbed areas, the soil has a dark O horizon, 3 to 6 inches thick; a E horizon, 1 to 5 inches thick; and Bh or Bhs horizon, 1 to 3 inches thick; all of which are normally mixed by plowing.
The Ap horizon has hue of 7.5YR or 10YR, value of 3 or 4, and chroma of 2 or 3. Texture of fine-earth fraction is silt loam, loam, fine sandy loam, or sandy loam, with friable or very friable consistence, and weak or moderate granular structure. Reaction is extremely acid through strongly acid.
The Bs horizon has hue of 5YR through 10YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma or 4 through 6. With depth, value tends to increase, and chroma tends to decrease. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is fine sandy loam or loam with friable or very friable consistence and granular or subangular blocky structure. Reaction ranges from moderately acid through very strongly acid.
The E horizon is loamy sand to loam in the fine-earth fraction, and is perceptibly lighter in texture and higher in color value than Bx horizon. Some pedons have a BE horizon above the E horizon.
The Bx horizon has hue of 5YR through 2.5YR, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 through 6. Texture of the fine-earth fraction is fine sandy loam or loam. It has coarse or very coarse prismatic structure, or the horizon is massive. Prisms part to weak coarse block or platy structure; or are massive within prisms. It has firm or very firm and brittle consistence. Clay linings are in most pores, but do not coat prism faces. Reaction ranges from slightly to strongly acid.
The Cd horizon has hue of 5YR through 5Y, value of 4 or 5, and chroma of 2 through 4. Texture of the fine-earth fraction ranges from coarse sandy loam through loam. It has platy structure or is massive, and firm or very firm consistence. Reaction ranges from moderately acid to moderately alkaline, with carbonates below a depth of 48 inches in some pedons.
COMPETING SERIES: There are no other series in the same family.
Becket, Carry, Empeyville and Marlow soils are similar soils in related families. Becket and Marlow soils have a dense substratum but lack a fragipan horizon. Empeyville and Crary soils have mottles in the spodic horizon.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING: Worth soils occupy nearly level to very steep landforms of till plains where the till is dominantly derived from acid sandstone and siltstone. Slope ranges from 0 to 60 percent. Mean annual temperature ranges from 41 to 45 degrees F., and mean annual precipitation ranges from 35 to 48 inches, and mean annual frost-free days range from 100 to 140 days. Elevation ranges from 1000 to 2000 feet above sea level.
GEOGRAPHICALLY ASSOCIATED SOILS: Worth soils are the well-drained associates of the wetter Empeyville, Westbury and Tughill soils formed in similar deposits. Other common associates are Colton and Colossee soils on gravelly glacial outwash terraces and kames and Adams soils on sandy outwash plains.
DRAINAGE AND SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY: Well drained. The potential for surface runoff is low to high. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is moderately high to high above the fragipan and moderately low to moderately high in the fragipan and substratum.
USE AND VEGETATION: An estimated 40 to 50 percent is in woodland of American beech, sugar maple, yellow birch, and some conifers. Less than 20 percent is cropped to grass hay and minor acreages of corn and small grains. The remainder is idle or in unimproved pastures.
DISTRIBUTION AND EXTENT: Tughill Plateau, Adirondack border, and "grit plateau" of New York and Pennsylvania. MLRA 101, 140, 141, 142, and 143. The series is of moderate extent.
MLRA OFFICE RESPONSIBLE: Amherst, Massachusetts
SERIES ESTABLISHED: Jefferson County, New York, 1913.
REMARKS: The Worth series now includes most of the soils formerly in the Parishville series that is now inactive. The Worth series has been used in MLRAs that do not contain frigid soils prior to Soil Taxonomy. These are retained until surveys are updated to remove the series.
Diagnostic horizons and other features recognized in the typical pedon are:
(1) Ochric Epipedon - the zone from the surface to 7 inches (Ap horizon).
(2) Spodic horizon - the zone from 7 to 20 inches (Bs1 and Bs2 horizons).
(3) Fragipan - the zone from 26 to 45 inches (Bx horizon).