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

to neutral in the Ap horizons, to mildly alkaline inthe IICkgj horizons . Soil classification is typicallyGleyed Brunisolic Gray Brown Luvisol.Soil VariabilityOccasionally the IICkgj horizons have veryhigh silt contents and silt textures. They may alsocontain layers of sandy or clayey materials .Vittoria soils were mapped in combination with anumber of different soils, including Silver Hill(SL), Plainfield (PF), Walsingham (WM), Wattford(WF), and Normandale (NO) .Land Use/Management CommentsVittoria soils are rated Class 1 for commonfield crops when topography is not a limitation.They are suitable for a wide range of specialcrops, and suitability increases for many specialcrops if they are tile drained, or supplementalirrigation is carried out Suitability ratings forselected special crops are given in Tables 6, 7, and8.Vittoria 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 .Walsher Soils (WA)Landform and TopographyWalsher soils have developed on 40 to 100anthick veneers of coarse textured lacustrinematerials whichare underlainbymediumtexturedlacustrine materials . The upper materialsfrequently have been modified by wind. Theyusually occur on upper and crest slope positionsin landscapes which have very gently undulatingtopography . Slopes range from 2 to 5% .Soil Moisture CharacteristicsWalsher soils are well drained. They areusually rapidly permeable in the upper coarsetextured materials, and slowly permeable in thelower medium textured materials. Walsher soilshave moderate to high water holding capacities.Surface runoff is slow to moderate.General Soil CharacteristicsThe Ap and Bm horizons most often have finesand and loamy fine sand textures, but fine sandyloam and sandy loam textures are also common .Clay enriched Btgj or IIBtgj horizons, whichusually have silt loam, loam, or very fine sandyloam textures, occur above the calcareous IICkgjhorizons . The IICkgj horizons commonly have siltloam or very fine sandy loam textures .Distinct mottles occur at a depth of 50 to 100cm from the surface. Soil reaction ranges fromstrongly acid to neutral in the Ap horizons, tomildly alkaline in the IICkgj horizons . Soilclassification is typically Brunisolic Gray BrownLuvisol.Soil VariabilityOccasionally the IICkgj horizons have veryhigh silt contents and silt textures . They may alsocontain layers of sandy or clayey materials .Walsher soils mayhave weakly developed Btgj orIIBtgj horizons, or clay enriched horizons may beabsentWalsher soils commonly occur incombination with Vittoria (VI) and Plainfield (PF)soils .Land Use/Management CommentsWalsher soils are rated Class 2M for commonfield crops when topography is not a limitation .If the surface slopes are not too steep, they arehighly suitable for a wide range of special crops .Their suitability increases for many special cropsif supplemental irrigation is carried out.Suitability ratings for selected special crops aregiven in Tables 6, 7, and 8 .Walsher 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-fillpractices, should be considered for these soils .Walsingham Soils (WM)Landform and TopographyWalsingham soils have developed on blanketsof coarse textured eolian materials . When theyoccur with poorly drained soils in the samelandscape, they usually occur on upper and crestslope positions. When, they occur with betterdrained soils, they usually occur on mid to lowerslope positions . Walsingham soils most oftenoccur in landscapes which have nearly level tovery gently undulating topography . Occasionallythey occur in landscapes which have gentlyundulating topography. Slopes generally rangefrom 2 to 9%, with slopes of 2 to 5% being mostcommon.