In 1988, the Professional Soil Classifiers Association of Mississippi selected Natchez silt loam soil to represent the soil resources of the State. These soils exist on 171,559 acres (0.56% of state) of landscape in Mississippi.
Mississippi state soil
The Natchez Silt Loam as the
official state soil, designated by the
Mississippi Legislature in 2003.
Description
The Natchez soils formed in very deep
loess material under a woodland environment and a climate that was warm and humid. These soils have natural fertility and desirable
tilth
Tilth is a physical condition of soil, especially in relation to its suitability for planting or growing a crop. Factors that determine tilth include the formation and stability of aggregated soil particles, moisture content, degree of aeration, ...
but usually occur on slopes that limit their use to trees. In areas where slopes are less,
pasture
Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or sw ...
and
row crop
A row crop is a crop that can be planted in rows wide enough to allow it to be tilled or otherwise cultivated by agricultural machinery, machinery tailored for the seasonal activities of row crops. Such crops are sown by drilling or transplan ...
s are grown and the soil is very productive when good management is applied.
A typical Natchez soil profile consists of a 3 inch top soil of dark grayish brown silt loam and to 8 inches, a subsurface of brown silt loam, a yellowish brown and dark yellowish brown silt loam subsoil to 36 inches and a substratum that is yellowish brown, and dark yellowish brown silt loam down to 80 inches.
Soil family classification
Classified as coarse-silty, mixed, superactive, thermic typic eutrudepts:
Natchez soils are in the Inceptisols soil order. Inceptisols soils have developed in relatively young material that have an Ochric epipedon is rich in weatherable minerals. The term coarse-silty indicates that the subsoil has less than 18 percent clay with less than 15 percent sand coarser than very fine. The term mixed suggests that no one mineral is over 60 percent. Thermic refers to an average annual soil temperature between 15 and 22 degrees Celsius (59 to 72 degrees Fahrenheit) and differs more than 5 degrees Celsius (9 °F) between winter and summer at 50 cm (20 inches) below the surface.
Natchez soils are on strongly sloping to very steep hillsides in the highly dissected parts of the bluff hills that border the Mississippi Delta floodplains. They formed in silty loess material that ranges from strongly acid to neutral in the upper part and neutral to slightly alkaline in lower parts. Average annual precipitation is 52 inches. Average annual air temperature is 63 °F (17 °C). The soil has developed in the upper Pleistocene age material.
See also
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List of U.S. state soils
This is a list of U.S. state soils. A state soil is a soil that has special significance to a particular U.S. state, state. Each state in the United States has selected a state soil, twenty of which have been legislatively established. These offic ...
*
Soil type
Sources
*''This article utilizes text taken verbatim fro
Natchez Silt Loam- Mississippi State Soil a
public domain
The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work to which no exclusive intellectual property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, or may be inapplicable. Because those rights have expired, ...
publication of the
United States Department of Agriculture
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the federal executive department responsible for developing and executing federal laws related to farming, forestry, rural economic development, and food. It aims to meet the needs of com ...
.''
Pedology
Soil in the United States
Geology of Mississippi
Symbols of Mississippi
Types of soil
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