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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