A free-draining zonal soil associated with deciduous woodland. Generally, brown earths have a thick litter layer and a humus-rich A horizon, containing iron and aluminium sesquioxides in small, crumb-like peds. The weakly developed, lighter, B horizon contains blocky peds; there is little leaching. See Storrier and Muir (1962) Eur. J. Soil Sci. 13, 2.