The Drummer soil series

Soil series

Soil series as established by the National Cooperative Soil Survey of the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service are a level of classification in the USDA Soil Taxonomy classification system hierarchy. The actual object of classification is the so-called...

 is the state soil of Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

.

It was established in Ford County, Illinois, in 1929. Drummer Soil was named for Drummer Creek in Drummer Township. It consists of very deep, poorly-drained soils that formed in 40 to 60 inches (1.5 m) of loess

Loess

Loess is an aeolian sediment formed by the accumulation of wind-blown silt, typically in the 20–50 micrometre size range, twenty percent or less clay and the balance equal parts sand and silt that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate...

 or other silt

Silt

Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...

y material and in the underlying stratified, loamy glacial drift. These soils formed under prairie

Prairie

Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...

vegetation.

Drummer soil is the most abundant and extensive soil in Illinois. It occurs over more than 1500000 acres (6,070.3 km²) in the state. It is the most productive soil in the state. Corn and soybeans are the principal crops grown in Drummer soil.

The average annual precipitation in areas of Drummer soil ranges from 32 to 40 inches (1,016 mm). The average annual air temperature ranges from 48 to 54 °F (12.2 °C).

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