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

Fox soils are susceptible to wind erosion.Planting cover crops, establishing windbreaks, andcarrying out management .practices whichmaintain organic matter levels, will aid inreducing the risk of erosion by wind .Conservation tillage practices, particularly no-tillpractices, should be considered for these soils .Frome Soils (FR)Landform and TopographyFrome soils have developed on blankets ofcoarse textured lacustrine materials . They occur indepressional positions in landscapes which havenearly level topography. Slopes are less than 2% .Soil Moisture CharacteristicsFrome soils are very poorly drained andrapidly permeable . Saturated conditions occur ator near the surface for long periods each year dueto high water table levels. They have low waterholding capacities and surface runoff is slow .General Soil CharacteristicsThe Ap horizons usually have sandy loam orloamy sand textures. The Bg and calcareous Ckghorizons tend to have higher sand contents andsand or loamy sand textures.Bluish gray to gray gley colours are dominantwithin the profile. Soil reaction ranges fromneutral in the surface Ap horizons, to mildlyalkaline in the Ckg horizons . Soil classification istypically Orthic Hun-dc Gleysol .Soil VariabilityFrome peaty phase (FR.P) soils were mappedwhere 15 to 40 cm of organic materials overly thesandy materials. The aerial extent of Frome andFrome peaty phase soils in the County is limited .Land Use/Management CommentsFrome andFrome peaty phase soils require tiledrainage in order to reach their potentialcapability for common field crop production.Frome soils are rated Class 3W, and Frome peatyphase soils are rated Class 4W . Due to theextreme wetness conditions associated with thesesoils, they are either not suitable or they havelimited suitability for special crops . Suitabilityincreases for some special crops, however, if theyare tile drained. Suitability ratings for selectedspecial crops are given in Tables 6, 7, and 8.Gobles Soils (GO)Landform and TopographyGobles soils have developed on fine to veryfine textured morainal materials which arecommonly referred to as Port Stanley till. Theyoccur on ground and terminal moraines whichcommonly have nearly level to gently undulatingtopography. Occasionally they also occur inlandscapes which are hummocky or rolling.Slopes generally range from 1 to 9%, but slopes of6% or less are most common.Soil Moisture CharacteristicsGobles soils are imperfectly drained andmoderately to slowly permeable. Saturatedconditions occur in the upper horizons for briefperiods each . year . Gobles soils have high waterholding capacities, and moderate to rapid surfacerunoff.General Soil CharacteristicsGobles soil materials contain 27% or more clay.The Ap horizons frequently have silty day loamor clay loam textures, but silty day or claytextures are also common. The Bmgj, Btgj, andcalcareous Ckgj horizons which commonly occurusually have silty clay loam or silty clay textures .Occasionally the texture of the subsoil horizonsmaybe clay loam or clay.Distinct to prominent, yellowish brown toreddish brown mottles occur within the profile .Soil reaction ranges from slightly acid to neutral inthe Ap horizons, to mildly alkaline in the Ckgjhorizons. Soil classification is typically GleyedBrunisolic Gray Brown Luvisol.Soil VariabilityLocalized areas of severely eroded Gobles soilsoccur in some landscapes, primarily those whichhave surface slopes that are greater than 5% .Occasionally surface stones occur whichmayaffecttillage or harvesting operations .Gobles soils frequently occur where thinsurface caps of medium or coarse texturedmaterials overly the morainal materials . Goblesloamy phase (GO.L) soils were mapped where 15to 40 cm of silt loam or loam textured materialsoccurred at the surface . Gobles coarse phase(GO.C) soils were mapped where 15 to 40 cm offine sandy loam or sandy loam textured materialsoccurred at the surface. Gobles washed phase(GON) soils were mapped where 40 to 100 cm ofsilt loam or loam textured, lacustrine modified tillmaterials overly clayey till materials.