Excerpt from Soils and Manures in New Zealand In studying, a soil in the laboratory it is usual to separate some of its components from one another, and such a process is called a mechanical analysis. A sample is washed with weak acid, and afterwards by ammonia, and then rubbed gently in a dish, by which process the particles of soil are freed from one another, so that, partly by means of sieves, and partly by stirring the soil in water, when the particles settle down in order according to their size and weight, the whole sample can be graded according to size into fractions. In order to be able to compare two soils on the basis of such an analysis it is necessary that the method of treatment of the two should be the same. For that reason British agriculturists have adopted a method which separates the soil into particles of the size shown in the table, and to which the names shown in the first column are applied. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.