Soil survey of Hunt County, Texas Page: 50 of 60
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48 BUREAU OF CHEMISTRY AND SOILS, 1934
MORPHOLOGY AND GENESIS OF SOILS
Hunt County lies within the eastern part of the blackland prairie,
which is a southerly segment of the great north-south belt of prairie
land that crosses the central part of the United States. The blackland
prairie is occupied largely by dark-colored comparatively unleached
soils having characteristics that primarily are an expression
of the kind of materials from which they have developed
rather than of the climatic environment. In general the formations
giving rise to the parent materials from which these dark-colored
soils have developed are unconsolidated materials consisting of clays
shaly clays, and chalk containing from small to large quantities of
calcium carbonate. The soils have developed under a dense cover
of tall and some small prairie grasses.
Associated smaller areas of soils developed under a growth of trees
are similar to the soils of the timbered sandy-soil belt of the eastTexas
timber country, which lies a few miles east of Hunt County,
where the soils have developed from unconsolidated beds of sands
and clays, that are not calcareous or are but slightly calcareous. The
contact of the blackland prairie and the east-Texas timber country,
about 30 miles east of Greenville, is approximately coincident with
the contact between the Midway and Wilcox formations (9).
The general relationship between the geological beds exposed in
this county and the soils developed on them is shown in table 7. The
geological nomenclature is that of the authority quoted. The dip
of the formations is given as approximately south 60 E. and averages
about 75 feet to the mile. The normal succession of younger
outcrop belts to the southeast is slightly disturbed by several small
faults.
The soils of this county have developed under a warm humid
climatic influence. The leaching process in soil development commonly
is so dominant in such a climate that normally soils have
developed that are free of calcium carbonate or other salts and are
more or less acid. This is well evidenced in the soils developed from
sandy parent materials, but some calcium carbonate is retained in all
soil layers of the heavy-textured soils of the prairies, especially those
developed from highly calcareous materials.
The northwestern one-third of the county (approximately) is
occupied largely by the heavy-textured soils of the prairies, mostly
those with smooth relief and clay texture. These soils generally
are productive. They have developed chiefly from highly calcareous
parent materials, and most of them are high in calcium carbonate and
are of granular or crumbly structure in the surface horizons. These
soils may be considered as constituting a Houston soils division.
In the southeastern two-thirds the soils are, for the most part,
lighter colored prairie soils, largely medium textured. They are not
so friable as are the soils of the Houston division, as they crust
tightly on drying, and, as a rule, are thinner and less productive
than those soils. They may be considered as soils of the Wilson
division. They have developed from unconsolidated parent materials
that are less calcareous than those beneath the soils of the Houston
division, and which also generally contain more sand and silt.
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Templin, E. H. (Edward Henry) & Marshall, R. M. (Richard Moon). Soil survey of Hunt County, Texas, book, February 1939; [Washington D.C.]. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth19778/m1/50/?q=tex-land: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.