Get yours hands dirty to know soils' textural class

Getting a feel for soils is fun and really important for anyone working with the land, from gardeners to engineers to soil scientists. The texture - or relative amounts of sand, silt and clay in a soil - is one of the most important properties of soil to know and understand. Fortunately, it doesn't take expensive equipment to determine texture accurately enough to be really helpful in managing and classifying soils. All you need is your hands, some water ... and lots of practice. This flow diagram and the descriptions therein should be self explanatory and can help guide your practice to find near-perfection in texturing soils. Enjoy feeling -and listening to - your soils!

Published in Weil, R.R. 2014. Laboratory manual for introductory soils. 9th ed. Kendall/Hunt, Dubuque, IO. 218 p.