Cecil -- North Carolina State Soil

Photograph of landscape of Cecil soil series.

Photograph of the profile of a typifying pedon of Cecil soil series.

Cecil Soil Profile
Surface layer:  dark gray sandy loam
Subsoil:  red clay and clay loam
 Cecil soils are the most extensive of the soils that have their type location in North Carolina. They occur on 1,601,740 acres in the State. They are estimated to be on nearly one-third of the Piedmont Plateau in the Eastern United States.

About half of the acreage of these soils is cultivated, and the rest is used for pasture or forest. The most common crops are small grain, corn, cotton, and tobacco.

The Cecil series consists of very deep, well-drained, moderately permeable soils on upland ridges and side slopes. These soils formed in material weathered from felsic, igneous, and high-grade metamorphic rocks. Slopes range from 0 to 25 percent.

The Cecil series is on the National List of Benchmark Soils, and is a Hall of Fame Soil. A monolith of the series profile is on display at the International Soil Reference and Information Centre in Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Small scale map of North Carolina and adjacent states showing distribution of Cecil soil series.
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