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

soils which occur in the eastern portion of theCounty . Suitability ratings for selected specialcrops are given in Tables 6, 7, and 8.Plainfield soils are susceptible to wind erosion .Planting cover crops and establishing windbreakswill aid in reducing the risk of erosion by wind .Conservation tillage practices, particularly no-tillpractices, should be considered for these soils.Shedden Soils (SH)Landform and TopographyShedden soils have developed on coarsetextured ice-contact stratified drift materials . Thecoarse texured drift materials usually containlayers of gravelly materials . They commonly arefound on upper and crest slope positions onisolated sandy ridges or knolls which occur inclayey till morainal landscapes . Slopes range from2 to 15%, with slopes of 6 to 15% being mostcommon .Soil Moisture CharacteristicsShedden soils are rapidly drained and rapidlypermeable . They have low water holdingcapacities and slow surface runoff, except onslopes greater than 5% where runoff may bemoderate to rapid .General Soil CharacteristicsThe Ap and Bm horizons usually have loamyfine sand, loamy sand, . or fine sandy loamtextures . Clay enriched Bt horizons, which usuallyhave fine sandy loam textures, usually occurabove the calcareous Ck or IICk horizons .Textures of the Ck horizons is usually fine sand orloamy fine sand. The coarser textured calcareousmaterials which occur at depth usually consist ofalternating layers of sandy and gravelly materials .The sandy layers commonly have loamy fine sand,fine sand, or sand textures. The gravelly layersfrequently have gravelly sand, gravelly coarsesand, or gravelly loamy coarse sand textures.Soil reaction ranges from medium acid toneutral in the Ap horizons, to mildly alkaline inthe underlying calcareous materials. Soilclassification is typically Brunisolic Gray BrownLuvisol.Soil VariabilityShedden soils mainly occur in the northernportion of Southwold Township and in the northeasternportion of Dunwich Township . In thoseareas they are underlain by clayey till materials ofthe St. Thomas Moraine . The layers of coarsetextured materials which occur at depth in thesesoils are variable in thickness. The sandy layerswhich are present in those materials usuallycontain some gravel, which may be greater than10% in some layers . Occasionally loamy or clayeylayers also occur within the profile of someShedden soils.In transition areas between the, sandy ridgesand the surrounding till moraines, occasionallyshallow Shedden soils may occur where theunderlying till materials are present within 100 cmof the surface. Severely eroded Shedden soilsoccur in small portions of some landscapes.Shedden soils were most often mapped incombination with Middlemarch (MI) and Gobles(GO) soils.Land Use/Management CommentsShedden soils are rated Class 2FM for commonfield crops when topography is not a limitation.With supplemental irrigation, they are highlysuitable for a wide range of special crops.Suitability ratings for selected special crops aregiven in Tables 6, 7, and 8.Shedden soils are susceptible to wind erosion .Planting cover crops, establishing windbreaks, andmaintaining high crop residue levels will aid inreducing the risk of erosion by wind .Conservation tillage practices, particularly no-tillpractices, should be considered for these soils.Silver Hill Soils (SL)Landform and TopographySilver Hill soils have developed on 40 to 100cm thick veneers of coarse textured lacustrinematerialswhich are underlainby medium texturedlacustrine materials. They usually occur on lowerslopes and in depressions in landscapes whichhave nearly level or very gently undulatingtopography. Slopes are less than 2% .Soil Moisture CharacteristicsSilver Hill soils are poorly drained . They aremoderately to rapidly permeable in the uppercoarse textured materials, but slowly permeable inthe lower medium textured materials. The poordrainage conditions associated with these soils areoften caused by high water table levels, whichmay occur within 50 cm of the surface forprolonged periods of time. Silver Hill soils havemedium to highwater holding capacities and slowsurface runoff.