The High Lime Soil Zone Canada

The High Lime soils are found in the vicinity of Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba in an area where climate and vegetation indicate the development of Grey Wooded soils. Highly calcareous parent material derived from Paleozoic limestones has inhibited the development of normal profiles. The dark surface soils may be highly alkaline and contain traces of unleached calcium carbonate. The profiles are quite shallow. Many areas are very stony and thus unsuitable for farming.

The Soils of the Cordilleran Region

It is quite impossible to depict, on a small scale map, the complicated and imperfectly known soils pattern of this region. We have already noted the occurrence of Brown, Dark Brown, Black and Grey Wooded soils. There are also cool, moist mountain areas where true podzols have developed. Large areas, however, are so steep and rocky that normal soil development is impossible. Where it is, the mountain sides display soil zones, arranged vertically, in which there is a regular sequence from Brown soils in the valleys to mountain podzols and alpine tundra at the top.

Soils of the Pacific Coast

The coastal margin of the Cordilleran region has specific climatic and vegetational characteristics and it also has soils which are quite different from those of the interior. With high humidity and a coniferous forest, its soils are subject to podzolic leaching but are classified as Brown Podzolic, rather than as Podzols. In the area with an almost Mediterranean type of summer dry climate, the subsoils have a reddish tinge indicating a relationship with the soils of California.

Soil Zones of Eastern Canada

The soils of eastern Canada have all been developed under a humid climate and forest vegetation and are classified as Podzols, Brown Podzolic and Grey Brown Podzolic soils.

The Eastern Podzol Zone

This is a large zone, the exact size and boundaries of which are yet undefined, although pedologists are quite familiar with the soils of its southern portion in the Maritime Provinces, Newfoundland, Quebec and Ontario. A division is usually made between the podzols of the Maritimes and Southern Quebec and those of the Canadian Shield. This is not only because of the difference in rock material but because the southeastern zone receives more rainfall and its soils are weathered more deeply and more completely than those of the northern region. In both areas, however, the soils are acid and infertile. Only a small area has been cleared for agriculture, except on Prince Edward Island which is the most completely occupied and cultivated province in Canada.