THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE MECHANICAL ANALYSIS OF SOILS.
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Author:A. SREENIVASAN
p-ISSN:0024-9602, e-ISSN:2582-5321, Vol:22, Issue:nov-nov
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.A04893
Abstract
The process of mechanical analysis was developed
to give more precision to terms such as sand, loam and clay that are
employed by a pratical man in describing soils. Its function is to sort
out by appropriate means the particles composing a soil into groups
of specified limits of diameter. The methods of mechanical soil
analysis in their various forms are, undoubtedly, among the more
tedious operations, with which soil scientists are confronted. The
importance of a determination of this kind lies in the fact that the
behaviour of the soil towards water, its power of retaining and hand-
ing over the rainfall to the plant and also its physical texture and
amenability to cultivation-factors which are of greater importance
in the nutrition of the crop than the amount of plant food present-
are all determined by the sizes of the particles of which the soil is
composed. This fundamental fact has long been recognised and has led
to a tremendous amount of work on the part of various investigators,
in an effort to devise methods for making mechanical analyses of soils.
and determining the proportions of particles of various sizes.
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