Soil loam soil with a small amount of organic material is considered "ideal", inasmuch as fertilizers or manure are currently used to mitigate nutrient losses due to crop yields in the long term. The mineral constituents of a loam soil might be 40% sand, 40% silt and the balance 20% clay by weight. Soil texture affects soil behaviour, in particular, its retention capacity for nutrients (e.g., cation exchange capacity) and water. Sand and silt are the products of physical and chemical weathering of the parent rock; clay, on the other hand, is most often the product of the precipitation of the
Paxton (soil) Paxton (soil) The Paxton soil series was established in Worcester County, Massachusetts in 1922, and is named for the town of Paxton where it was first described and mapped. Coarse-loamy, mixed, active, mesic Oxyaquic Dystrudepts. Paxton soils are in the Inceptisol soil order of soil taxonomy. The term "coarse-loamy" indicates that the soil has less than 18% clay and at least 15% or more particles that are fine sand or coarser. The term "mixed" indicates no single mineral is over 40 percent. The term "active" represents a ratio of the cation-exchange capacity to clay of the pedon. The term "mesic"