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

and the soils can be managed and cropped with little difficulty.Under good management they are moderately high to high inproductivity for common field crops .Class 3 - Soils in this class have moderately severe limitationsthat restrict the range of crops or require special conservationpractices . The limitations are more severe than for Class2 soils . They affect one or more of the following practices : timingand ease of tillage, planting and harvesting ; choice ofcrops ; and methods ofconservation . Undergood managementthey are fair to moderately high in productivity for commonfield crops .Class 4 - Soils in this class have severe limitations thatrestrict the range of crops or require special conservation practices,or both . The limitations seriously affect one or more ofthe following practices : timing and ease of tillage, planting andharvesting ; choice ofcrops ; and methods ofconservation . Thesoils are lowto fair in productivity for common field crops, butmay have higher productivity for aspecially adapted crop .Class 5 - Soils in this class have very severe limitationsthat restrict their capability to produce perennial forage cropsand improvement practices are feasible. The limitations are soseverethatthe soils are not capable of use for sustained productionof annual field crops . The soils are capable of producingnative or tame species of perennial forage plants, and may beimproved by use of farm machinery. The improvement practicesmay include clearing of bush, cultivation, seeding, fertilizingor water control .Class 6- Soils in this class are capable only of producingperennial forage crops, and improvement practices are not feasible. These soils provide some sustained grazing for farm animals, but the limitations are so severe that improvements byuse of farm machinery are impractical . The terrain may beunsuitable for use of farm machinery, or the soils may notrespond to improvement, or the grazing season may be veryshort .Class 7 - Soils in this class have no capability for arableculture or permanentpasture. This class includes marsh, rocklandand soil on very steep slopes .Soil Capability SubclassesSubclasses are divisions, within classes, that have the samekind of limitations for agricultural use asa resultof soil and climate.Ten different kinds of limitations have been recognized,at the subclass level, in Brant County. They are listed below.Subclass D - Undesirable soil structure and/or permeability.Subclass E - Erosion damage, or potential damage fromerosion, limits agricultural use ofthe land .Subclass F - Low natural fertility which may or may not bepossible to correct by addition of fertilizers ormanure .Subclass I- Inundations by flooding of streams or lakeslimits agriculturaluse.SubclassM -Moisture limitations due to low moistureholdingcapacities cause droughtiness that limitsagricultural use.Subclass P - Stoniness . Stones interfere with tillage, plantingandharvesting .Subclass R - Shallowness to bedrock, which is less thanthree feet from the ground surface .Subclass S- Adverse soil characteristics. Used when two ormore of the limitations represented by SubclassesD, F or M are present, or when two ofthe limitations represented by Subclasses D, For M are present and some additional limitationoccurs, e.g .,TSubclass T - Adverse topography, due to steepness or complexityof slopes, limits agricultural use byincreasing the cost of farming over that of thelevel land, by decreasing the uniformity ofgrowth and maturity of crops, and by increasingthe hazard of erosion damage by water .SubclassW - Excess water, other than from flooding, limitsuse for agriculture. The excess water may bedue to poor drainage, a high water table, seepage,or runoff from surrounding areas .Guidelines for determining most subclasses were obtainedfrom Environment Canada (13) . Assistance in determiningsubclassesW M and D was obtained from a computer programdeveloped by R.A . McBride (14) .Capability Classification for Organic SoilsThe previous discussion on soil capability classificationapplies only to mineral soils and cannot be used for organicsoils .Aseparate capability system has been devised fororganicsoils, using seven capability classes that are determinedaccording to the following soil characteristics : stage ofdecomposition(K), reaction (F), climate (C), substratum texture,wood content (L) and depth of organic soil (H) . Definitions ofthese soil characteristics and how they are used to determineorganic soil capability classes, are discussed by Hoffman andActon (15) . In this classification system, intensive agriculturaluse is assumed, e.g . vegetable production .Organic Soil Capability ClassesClass 1 - Organic soils of this class have no water, topographicalor pH limitations, and are deep and level .Class 2- Organic soils in Class 2 have one limitation thatrestricts their use in a minorway. The limitation maybe woodiness,reaction, flooding, topography, depth or climate.Class 3 - Organic soils in this class have moderatelysevere limitations that restrict the range of crops, or thatrequire special management practices .Class 4 - Soils in this class have limitations that severelyrestrict the range of crops, or require special development andmanagement practices. Reclamation and management costswill be high .Class 5 - Soils of this class have such severe limitationsthat they are restricted to the production ofperennial forage orother specially adapted crops . Large-scale reclamation is notfeasible.Class 6 - Class 6 organic soils are capable of producingonly indigenous crops, and improvements are not feasible.Class 7- Organic soils of this class have no capability foragriculture .Developing organic soils for agricultural use also dependson the feasibility of clearing vegetation, drainage and waterlevel control (15) . These are site-specific factors that are notconsidered for the general organic soil capabilities outlined inTable 8 .(Continued onpage 47)