Marlow -- New Hampshire State Soil

Photograph of a landscape with a gently sloping pasture with some livestock. Woodland in the backgroung.

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

Marlow Soil Profile

Surface layer: dark gray organic material
Subsurface layer: gray fine sandy loam
Subsoil - upper: yellowish red fine sandy loam with accumula tions of iron, aluminum, and organic matter
Subsoil - lower: olive gravelly fine sandy loam
Substratum: olive gray fine sandy loam (dense basal till)

Marlow soils occur on smooth, rounded drumlins (pictured above) as well as in the glaciated uplands of the mountains. The broad, gently sloping hillsides and summits of loamy drumlins have some of the more productive soils for agriculture in the harsh granitic landscapes of New Hampshire. These important soils are in the Marlow series.

The Marlow series was named in 1939 for the town of Marlow in Cheshire County, New Hampshire. This series consists of well drained soils that have a very firm substratum of basal till that was deposited by the glacier during its last advances over the Northeast about 15,000 years ago.

From rock-lined rolling fields to the steep forested uplands of the White Mountains, Marlow soils occur on much of the picturesque landscape of rural New Hampshire. Many of the state’s current farms are on this same landscape, which the early settlers cleared of trees and stones. Marlow soils also are economically important for timber products.

Small scale map of New Hampshire showing distribution of Marlow soil series.

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