The Soils of Elgin County - Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

ProminentmottlesRaised shorelineSoil horizonSoil morphologySoil permeabilitySoil profileSoil reactionspots of colour in soilhorizons, caused by impededdrainage, whose contrastwith the basic horizon colouris high.wave-cut side slopes ofglacial till or hummockyridges of mainly stratifiedsands and gravels, depositedat the shore of an ancientglacial lake.a distinct layer of soil,approximately parallel to theground surface. Usually twoto six horizons occur withinone metre of the groundsurface .the constitution of the soil,including the texture,structure, consistence, colourand other physical, chemical,and biological properties ofthe various soil horizons thatmake up the soil profile.the ease with which gases orliquids penetrate or passthrough the soil . The soilpermeability classes used todescribe the soils in thisreport are based on thosedescribed in the publication"CanSIS Manual fordescribing soils in the field"(12).a vertical section of the soilthrough all its horizons, andextending in to the parentmaterialthe degree of acidity oralkalinity of a soil, usuallyexpressed as a pH value.Descriptive terms commonlyassociated with certainranges in pH are : extremelyacid, 45 or less ; verystrongly acid, 4.6-5 .0 ;strongly acid, 5.1-5 .5 ;mediumacid, 5 .6-6 .0, slightlyacid, 6.1-6.5; neutral, 6.6-73,slightly alkaline, 7.4-7.8,moderately alkaline, 7 .9-8 .4;and strongly alkaline, 8.5 ormore . These descriptions arecontained in the publication"CanSIS Manual fordescribing soils" (12) .Soil structureSoil textureFigure 12.the combination orarrangement of primary soilparticles into secondaryparticles, units or peds .the relative proportions ofthe various particle sizefractions in a soil, asdescribed by the soil textureclasses shown in Figure 12.The sand portion of thetriangle may be furthersubdivided into coarse sand,sand, fine sand and very finesand, based on theproportions of various sandsizes within the sandfraction. . Likewise, loamysand may be divided intoloamy coarse sand, loamysand, loamy fine sand andloamy very fine sand . Whenthe gravel percentage isbetween 20 and 50 percent,the textural class is modifiedby "gravelly", e.g. gravellysandy loam . When thegravel percentage is greaterthan 50 percent, the texturalclass name is modified by"very gravelly", e .g . verygravelly sandy loam.Soil Texture Classes