Favorite Soils

My fascination with soils began in fifth grade when my teacher had us fold filter papers for the soil testing lab he ran on weekends and in the summer.  He was not my favorite teacher and yet he started a fascination that has continued for 47 more years to the present.  I learned more about soils when I participated in FFA soil judging contests in High School.

In college, days were spent studying my favorite subject as much as possible.  42 credit hours out of about 124 were in soils and geology.  I also participated in collegiate soil judging and along with learning more about Illinois soils, I got to study soils in Ohio, Wisconsin, and South Carolina.  Burt Ray, John Alexander, and Ivan Jansen, all fueled my passion further.

Jesse Drake @soilduck on Twitter asked if anyone had a story to tell about their favorite soil and why it is their favorite.  I can’t narrow it down to one really, but there several soils in Illinois that fascinate me for various reasons.

I grew up in the Mississippi River Valley in Monroe County.  Two fascinating soils on the home farm are Fults and Landes.  Fults is a dark silty clay underlain by sandy and loamy sediments.  Landes is a sandy loam.   Neither is particularly productive in terms of Illinois soils, but that is home.

Tamalco is a moderately well drained soil on low lying ridges in south central and southern Illinois.  It is distinctive because of the 7.5YR and 5YR hues in the upper subsoil.  It is not a major soil, just interesting to see and distinctive.  Another thing that makes it fascinating is the high sodium in the subsoil below the red layer.

Worthen is a well drained soil with a dark, very thick surface layer. The colors in this soil are classic earth tones.   Much of the horseradish in Illinois was grown on Worthen and its catena mate Littleton, soils in Madison and St. Clair County at one time.  

Cisne represents the southern Illinois claypan region and is worthy of recognition because of its large extent.

Drummer is the State Soil in Illinois.  It is very extensive in the area covered by the Wisconsinan Glaciation.  It is also a worthy representative of the wet, dark colored prairie soils that make Illinois such a productive agricultural state.  Other similar soils that are also very extensive in Illinois include Sable and Virden soils.

Wyanet soils were mapped as Parr when I was a field soil scientist working on soil surveys.  I always liked the look of this soil especially where it was formed in the Tiskilwa Till.  In those areas, 7.5 YR hues are common.  Redder than 10YR is not usual in Illinois at least in matrix colors.

 

Muscatune (formerly mapped Muscatine in Illinois) is one of the most productive soils in the world.  We would like all of our soils to look like Muscatune.  Some similar soils in Illinois that are probably equally productive with modern management are Bethalto, Ipava, Herrick, and Flanagan.