Drummer -- Illinois State Soil

Photograph of an Illinois rural landscape. It is level to nearly level with fields and crops. farmstead buildings in the background.

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

Drummer Soil Profile

Surface layer: thick, black silty clay loam
Subsurface layer: very dark gray silty clay loam
Subsoil: grayish brown and gray silty clay loam
Substratum: dark gray, mottled loam and sandy loam
 The Drummer soil series was established in Ford County, Illinois, in 1929.  It was named for Drummer Creek in Drummer Township.   It consists of very deep, poorly drained soils that formed in 40 to 60 inches of loess or other silty material and in the underlying stratified, loamy glacial drift. These soils formed under prairie vegetation.

Drummer soils are the most extensive soils in Illinois. They occur on more than 1.5 million acres in the state. They are the most productive soils in the state. Corn and soybeans are the principal crops.

The average annual precipitation in areas of Drummer soils ranges from 32 to 40 inches. The average annual air temperature ranges from 48 to 54 degrees F.

Drummer is a fine-silty, mixed, superactive, mesic Typic Endoaquoll.  This taxonomic classification is a very typical of the wet, dark colored, prairie-derived soils of Illinois.

Small scale map of Illinois and adjacent and nearby states showing distribution of Drummer soil series.
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