60 



The Sugar-Beet in America 



TABLE III. NUMBER OF SOIL PARTICLES IN A GRAM OP SOIL 

 OF DIFFERENT TEXTURES 



A soil composed entirely of particles of a single size is 

 never found ; hence the name given to a soil type depends 

 on the relative mixture of these various sizes. The terms 

 most commonly used for these mixtures are: (1) coarse 

 sand, (2) medium sand, (3) fine sand, (4) sandy loam, (5) 

 loam, (6) silt loam, (7) clay loam, and (8) clay. Farmers, 

 speaking in a general way, usually call their soil sand, 

 loam, or clay. 



Of the properties of the soil affected by texture, prob- 

 ably none is of greater practical importance than the 

 water-holding capacity. Moisture is held in thin films 

 around the soil particles and the quantity that can be re- 

 tained depends largely on the surface area of the particles, 

 which, in turn, depends on the size of the particles. This 

 is illustrated by the fact that a coarse sand will hold 

 scarcely 15 per cent of water, whereas a clay may hold 

 45 per cent. 



