Semi—Detailed Soil Survey Linstead—Bog Walk Area
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7 iV Soil Survey Report No. 2 \ / ^ j \ > •/ y'• Semi—Detailed Soil Survey of the Linstead—Bog Walk Area St. Catherine, Jamaica (1:25,000) Soil Survey Staff (May 1987) MINISTRY'GF^AGRIGÜLTÜRE "'Planning Division ISEIC LIBRARY v. rvéy Project JK - 1987.03 Wageningen The Hetberlands **i 't" T» Soil Survey Report No. 2. SEMI-DETAILED SOIL SURVEY of the LINSTEAD-BOG WALK AREA St. Catherine, Jamaica (1:25,000) Soil Survey Staff May 1987 MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE Rural Physical Planning Division Jamaica Soil Survey Unit Scanned from original by ISRIC - World Soil Information, as ICSU World Data Centre for Soils. The purpose is to make a safe depository for endangered documents and to make the accrued information available for consultation, following Fair Use Guidelines. Every effort is taken to respect Copyright of the materials within the archives where the identification of the Copyright holder is clear and, where feasible, to contact the originators. For questions please contact soil.isricgiwur.nl indicating the item reference number concerned. 11 SI I f SEMI-DETAILED SOIL SURVEY OF THE LINSTEAD-BOG WALK AREA, ST.CATHERINE, JAMAICA I. t • I • •• . M abstract The Linstead-Bog Walk survey area is located in the parish of St.Catherine, Jamaica, and covers about 33,000 hectares. Location, climate, relief, geology, hydrology and present land use are described. The area includes prominent physiographic features such as hills of sedimentary, metamorphic, ' igneous and pyroclastic origin, and an inland basin with old alluvial 'deposits which is traversed by river plains. Mapping units are primarily delineated on the basis of physio-lithologic characteristics and include soils that are defined by taxonomy at the series level. The agricultural potential of" the mapping units for specific crops is assessed and general recommendations for cultivating and conserving the soils are made. The land evaluation procedure is explained in the report. '•f preface This report is the second in a series of soil survey and land evaluation publications carried out under the auspices of the Soil Survey Project, a bi-lateral undertaking between the Governments of Jamaica and the Netherlands. The Project's ultimate aims and objectives are to improve the role of the Agricultural Sector as part of the overall economy by optimizing land use through the re-inventorization of the soils of the island using new and internationally acceptable standards to allow for both the physical and chemical characterization. This permits the correlation with soils of other tropical and sub-tropical regions as well as the comparison of agricultural production and research statistics. This report is the first in. the series whereby the data and information obtained, have been automated and applied in the Rural Physical Planning Division's Land Evaluation System (JAMPLES) which is an integral part of the Jamaican Geographic Information System (JAMGIS). The results of this process have been applied and used to prepare a feasibility study for the expansion of cacao production in part of the Linstead-Bog Walk project area: ; This publication is a result of an international team effort by the Rural Physical Planning Division's' Soil Survey Staff under the direction of Mr. Vincent A. Campbell, assisted by Mr. Pirn Commissaris and Mr. Marvell Gray. The preparation, compilation and writing of the report has been the responsibility of Messrs. Niels Batjcs and Lex Bouwman and Miss Christine Clarke. Soil chemical and physical analyses have been carried out by the Division's Soils Laboratory headed by Miss Swonia Austin and cartography was done under the supervision of Messrs. L.Rose and S.MitcHell. Other contributing international agencies are: United States Peace *Corps and United Nations Volunteers. Robert H. deKruyff Vincent A.Campbell Director/Editor Project Director Rural Physical Planning Division Soil Survey Project Ill contents ,.„. ....... f^ page Abstract-._....., ] .:..,.'." p .. i -i ' Preface —' ' 's ,.„_.., ....'•-, t c' * " " List of tables and figures, ._ , „ .. .^ ". ' .',' v 1 INTRODUCTION ",; . '. ;' 1 ; •' - - i - . • ^ 1.1 General .•"..'„. J 1.2 Objectives „.,..... " 1. 1.3 The report 1 2 DESCRIPTION OF THE AREA ' * 4 2.1 General characteristics 4 2.1.1 Location 4 2.1.2 Topography 4 2.1.3 Infrastructure 4 2.2 Climate v- . 5 2.2.1 Rainfall and potential evapotranspiration 5 v-~V 2.2.2 Temperature 6 2.2.3 Relative humidity / 6 2.2.4 Sunshine duration 7 2.3 Geology, relief and hydrology 7 2.3.1 Geology 7 2.3.2 Relief 8 2.3.3 Hydrology 8 2.4 Present land use 11 3 MATERIALS AND METHODS 13 3.1 Office procedures 13 3.2 Field procedures 13 3.3 Map compilation 15 3.4 Laboratory procedures 15 4 <THE SOILS 18 4.1 General characteristics of the soils 18 4.1.1 Soils of the hills and foothills 18 4.1.2 Soils of the inland basin 19 4.1.3 Soils of the river plains and valleys 20 4.2 Classification of the soils 21 4.3 The entries for the soil legend 23 4.4 Description of the soil mapping units 26 4.4.1 General, 26 4.4.2 Mapping units of the hills and foothills 26 4.4.3 Mapping units of the inland basin 36 4.4.4 Mapping units of the river plains and valleys 40 AGRONOMIC INTERPRETATION OF RESULTS 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Land evaluation 5.2.1 General approach 5.2.2 Rating of land qualities/characteristics ( 5.2.3 Land utilization types 5.2.4 Land suitability classes 5.2.5 Current versus potential suitability 5.3 Results 5.4 General recommendations REFERENCES APPENDICES List of Tables Table 1: Minimum length of the growing period in 75 percent of'the years for 6 stations in the Linstead-Bog Walk area. Table 2: Mean daily maximum, mean daily minimum and mean daily mean air temperature on a month by month basis at Worthy Park. Table 3: Mean relative humidity observed at Worthy Park (1967-1971). Table 4: Possible total hours and mean actual'hours of sunshine duration in the Worthy Park area. Table 5: Physiographic and geologic units of the Linstead-Bog Walk area. Table 6: Physiographic units of the Linstead-Bog Walk survey area. Table 7: Lithologic entries on the legend to the soil map. v Tables 8 - 12: Suitability of the soils of the Linstead-Bog Walk area for growing' specific crops. / List of figures Figure 1: Topographical map of the Linstead-Bog Walk area, St.Catherine. Figure 2: Geological map of the Linstead-Bog Walk area, St.Catherine. Figure 3: Land use map of the Linstead-Bog Walk area, St.Catherine. Figure 4: Survey area and relationship to other surveys. Enclosures Enclosure 1: Semi-detailed soil map of the Linstead-Bog Walk area, St.Catherine, Jamaica. Enclosure 2: Schematic cross section of the Linstead-Bog Walk inland basin. 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 GENERAL The semi-detailed soil survey of the Linstead-Bog Walk, area, St.Catherine, Jamaica, was carried out between the 27th of May and the 19th of June 1985; It is the result of a workshop on soil characterization for Land Capability Officers and Soil Surveyors of the Soil Survey Unit of the Ministry of Agriculture's Rural Physical Planning Division. '• The objective of a soil characterization survey is to update the soil descriptions in the Soil and Land Use Surveys of Jamaica published by the Regional Research Centre, Trinidad (RRC,1958-1970). Special emphasis is placed on the chemical and physical characterization of the soils. In combination with the detailed morphometric descriptions of the soils, the newly gathered data allow soil classification according to Soil Taxonomy (USDA, 1975). Finally, the soils are interpreted in terms of their suitability for specific crops. The Linstead-Bog Walk survey is the first soil characterization carried out in Jamaica. The survey was part of a workshop designed to develop a standardized methodology for all future soil characterizations in Jamaica and dealt with the pre-fieldwork activities, the framework for the entries on the national soil legend, the fieldwork proper and the integration of the results into a soil map and soil survey report. The framework that was developed during the workshop will be applied to all the forthcoming soil characterization surveys prepared by Rural Physical Planning Divisional Staff. In the first instance, the soil characterization programme will be carried out in areas with known high potential for agriculture. 1.2 OBJECTIVES The main objectives of the Linstead-Bog Walk survey are: • To develop a standardized methodology for soil characterization surveys. • To characterize the soils by morphometric studies in the field and by chemical and physical analyses in the laboratory. • To use the new information to revise and update the soil map and report of the previous soil survey of St.Catherine (RRC, 1958). • To classify the soils according to Soil Taxonomy (USDA, 1975) in view of establishing a national soil reference system for all soil series that occur in the island. • To assess the suitability of the soils for selected, climatically adapted crops through land evaluation. 1.3 THE REPORT The body of this report consists of five sections, seven appendices and two enclosures. The latter include one semi-detailed soil map (1:25,000) and a schematic cross-section of the survey area. Section 2 gives a general description of 2 the survey area, its climate, geology and relief, and present, lahd]use:J{T[ri| jn'èjthóüs and materials used in the field and laboratory are discussed in Section 3. Section 4 explains the lay out of the legend to the soil map, describes the «rangerofi characteristics of the soils of each mapping unit and provides information on their; chemical -and physical characteristics.