CAPABILITY UNITS 



The capability units provide more specific and detailed information than 

 the subclass for application to specific fields on a farm or ranch. A 

 capability unit is a grouping of soils that are nearly alike in suitabil- 

 ity for plant growth and responses to the same kinds of soil management. 

 That is, a reasonably uniform set of alternatives can be presented for the 

 soil, water, and plant management of the soils in a capability unit, assum- 

 ing that effects of past management are properly considered. Soils grouped 

 into capability units respond in a similar way and require similar manage- 

 ment although they may have soil characteristics that put them in different 

 soil series. 



Soils grouped into a capability unit should be sufficiently uniform in the 

 combinations of soil characteristics that influence their qualities to 

 have similar potentialities and continuing limitations or hazards. Thus 

 the soils in a capability unit should be sufficiently uniform to (a) pro- 

 duce similar kinds of cultivated crops eind pasture plants with similar 

 management practices, (b) require similar conservation treatment and man- 

 agement under the same kind and condition of vegetative cover, and (c) 

 have comparable potential productivity. (Estimated average yields under 

 similar management systems should not vary more than about 25 percent 

 among the kinds of soil included with the unit.) 



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