Soil survey of Hunt County, Texas Page: 53 of 60
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SOIL SURVEY OF HUNT COUNTY, TEXAS 51
The immaturity of soil development of Houston black clay is due
to the character of the parent rock which contains so much calcium
carbonate and is so resistant to leaching that all soil layers remain
calcareous. Further reasons for the immaturity of soil development
lie in the character of the vegetation, which is grass, and in the comparatively
small amount of water penetrating the soil. In a narrow
belt extending from Whiterock to Middle Sulphur School in the
north-central part of the county, the water table lies within reach of
tree roots. Here the soils on the smooth areas have developed beyond
the Houston black clay stage into Hunt and Wilson soils which
contain less calcium carbonate. Water does not permeate the Houston
black clay material readily. When dry, however, this soil absorbs
moisture readily and becomes wet as far down as the underlying
marl, but the moisture reaches the lower layers chiefly through
the wide cracks caused by contraction and does not pass through the
soil. Furthermore, some of the surface soil continually is washing
into the deep cracks and bringing about a slow natural mixture ok
the soil materials to a considerable depth. Presumably this is one
of the major causes of the extreme thickness of the dark-colored horizons.
The presence of moderately abundant concertions of calcium
carbonate in the deeper soil layers, which are not to be found in the
unaltered parent rock, suggests that this soil may have a zone of carbonate
concentration. There is no considerable movement of
moisture down through the substrata, as is evidenced by the general
absence of a ground water table.
Mechanical and complete chemical analyses of the various horizons
and of the colloids separated from the various horizons of a profile
of Houston black clay from Bell County, Tex., are reported by Middleton,
Slater, and Byers (4). This profile has a more sloping surface
than is typical for the soil in Hunt County and it contains a
much higher content of calcium carbonate than is representative of
the type. Eight other analyses of this soil reported in literature
(1, 2, 3, 7, 8) show an average content of 7 percent of calcium carbonate
in the surface soil, the content ranging from 1.5 to 15.9 percent.
Except for the excessive content of calcium carbonate, which
is indicative of somewhat less advanced soil development, the analyses
of the soil in Bell County give good indications of the type
of soil development of Houston black clay.
Some of the more important physical and chemical features of the
horizons of Houston black clay are shown in table 8.
The free carbonates have been leached from the surface layers of
Hunt clay; but the reaction of the surface soil is still neutral or only
very faintly acid, and eluviation has not occurred. Within those
parts of the county where this soil is dominant, it occupies the same
range of topographic positions as does Houston black clay. Where
areas of the two soils adjoin, Hunt clay occupies the smoother land
and Houston black clay the more sloping land. It is apparent that,
for the most part, areas of Hunt clay are coextensive with areas in
which the underlying soil-forming parent material contains slightly
less lime than does the parent material beneath Houston black clay.
The Wilson soils are more completely developed than are Houston
black clay and Hunt clay. Although the Wilson soils, as developed
in the southern part of the blackland prairie of Texas, have only
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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/m1/53/?q=tex-land&rotate=90: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.