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State Symbols

The official state symbols represent the cultural heritage and natural treasures of each state or the entire United States

Massachusetts Symbols

Massachusetts Symbols

Beans, Berry, Beverage, Bird, Building & Monument Stone, Cat, Ceremonial March, Children's Author and Illustrator, Children's Book, Citizenry, Cookie, Dessert, Dog, Donut, Explorer Rock, Fish, Flag, Flower or Floral Emblem, Folk Dance, Folk Hero, Folk Song, Fossil, Fruit, Game Bird, Gem, Glee Club Song, Heroine, Historical Rock, Horse, Insect, Marine Mammal, Mineral, Motto, Muffin, Nicknames, Ode of the Commonwealth, Patriotic Song, Poem, Polka, Rock, Seal, Shell, Soil, Song, Tree, Veterans of Southwest, Asia War Monument, Vietnam War Memorial

Massachusetts State Soil

Paxton Soil Series

Adopted on July 10, 1990.

The Paxton Soil Series was adopted by the Legislature on July 10, 1990.

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.

Paxton soils occur on about 400,000 acres of the 5.3 million acres in the state. In 1991, the State Legislature designated the Paxton series as the Massachusetts State Soil.

The Paxton series consists of very deep, well drained soils on glacial till uplands. These soils formed in friable glacial till overlying firm, dense till. The dense till is the outstanding characteristic of the Paxton series. Permeability is moderate in the surface layer and subsoil and slow or very slow in the substratum. Available water capacity is high. Reaction ranges from very strongly acid to moderately acid. A seasonal high water table is perched at a depth of 1.5 to 2.5 feet. Where stones have been cleared and slopes are gentle, Paxton soils are well suited to cultivated crops, hay, and improved pasture. Some areas are used for residential development. Most areas where stones have not been cleared and slopes are steeper are wooded.

State Symbols

State symbols represent things that are special to a particular state.

symbol \ˈsim-bəl\
noun

Etymology:
in sense 1, from Late Latin symbolum, from Late Greek symbolon, from Greek, token, sign; in other senses from Latin symbolum token, sign, symbol, from Greek symbolon, literally, token of identity verified by comparing its other half, from symballein to throw together, compare, from syn- + ballein to throw — more at devil
Date: 15th century

1: Something that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention, especially a material object used to represent something invisible.