Pamunkey -- Virginia's State Soil

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has asked that each state adopt, through legislation, a "State Soil." NRCS asked the Virginia Association of Professional Soil Scientists (VAPSS) to select a soil for Virginia.

In recognition of the 100 years that the Soil Survey program has provided valuable information necessary for planning growth and for protection of our natural resources and environment, each state in the Nation is adopting a "State Soil". Soil is a basic resource that we rely on for most of our food, fiber and national economy.

In selecting a "State Soil" for Virginia, we were faced with dilemmas that many other states would not be faced with. Virginia covers some 450 miles along its southern boundary, five Physiographic Provinces and nine Major Land Resource Areas. With this kind of diversity in the state, it is hard to select a soil which represents the entire state.

Fortunately, Virginia is blessed with rivers whose watersheds cover each physiographic province. The James River crosses the entire Commonwealth of Virginia and brings sediments from each of the provinces it flows through. These sediments are deposited on flood plains and on deltas along its course, to later form Pamunkey soils on low stream terraces.

This soil, originally mapped as Wickham soil series, was first recognized in Hanover County. Chemical laboratory data revealed that the base saturation (natural fertility) was greater in these soils than is allowed in the Wickham series. The soil was named Pamunkey, the name chosen for a nearby river, which in turn was named for the Pamunkey Indian Nation that lives along the river.

Pamunkey soils are prime agriculture soils in Virginia and occur on about 30,000 acres. Extensive areas of Pamunkey soils have been mapped in the counties of Charles City, Chesterfield, Essex, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico, James City, New Kent, Prince George, Richmond, Westmoreland, and York.

The Pamunkey soils were first used to sustain the Pamunkey Indians, other tribes, and later to grow crops by the settlers at Jamestown. The high natural fertility and high crop yields associated with these soils may be one reason that the Jamestown settlement survived. 

Soil Classification: fine-loamy, mixed, semiactive, thermic Ultic Hapludalfs

Pamunkey soils are  very deep, well drained soils formed in Piedmont and Coastal Plain fluvial sediments. They are on nearly level to sloping stream terraces. Slopes range from 0 to 15 percent. Mean annual precipitation is about 48 inches, and mean annual temperature is about 59 degrees F.  Pamunkey soils typically have a sandy loam surface layer and a sandy clay loam subsoil underlain by sandy and loamy substrata.

• Pamunkey soil is formed from sediments which originated in every physiographic province in the Commonwealth and therefore represents the WHOLE state better than other soils.
  

• The farm where the representative profile of Pamunkey soil is located, near Jamestown, is the oldest continuously worked farm in the United States. Because of encroaching development, the county of James City has put this historic farm into a conservancy program for the use of agriculture.
  

• The Pamunkey soil, on this oldest working farm in America, produced the world corn yield (308 bushels/acre) and the world record wheat yield (140 bushels/acre) in 2000.
  

• The first settlers at Jamestown grew their crops on Pamunkey soil which may be the very reason they survived. Prior to Jamestown being settled the River Indian Tribes, including the Pamunkey Tribe, recognized the high natural fertility of this soil. Its very likely Pocahontas saved Capt. John Smith's life on this soil.

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