Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Clay is generally considered undesirable for agriculture, although some amount of clay is a necessary component of good soil. Compared to other soils, clay soils are less suitable for crops due to their tendency to retain water, and require artificial drainage and tillage to make suitable for planting.
In soils, clay is a soil textural class and is defined in a physical sense as any mineral particle less than 2 μm (8 × 10 −5 in) in effective diameter. Many soil minerals, such as gypsum , carbonates, or quartz, are small enough to be classified as clay based on their physical size, but chemically they do not afford the same utility as do ...
Using digging bars to move rocks A girl and a man dig a hole with a heavy digging bar to plant a tree. Common uses of digging bars include breaking up clay, concrete, frozen ground, and other hard materials, moving or breaking up tree roots and obstacles, and making holes in the ground for fence posts.
Soil texture is determined by the relative proportion of the three kinds of soil mineral particles, called soil separates: sand, silt, and clay. At the next larger scale, soil structures called peds or more commonly soil aggregates are created from the soil separates when iron oxides, carbonates, clay, silica and humus, coat particles and cause ...
Distinctions in soils are used in assessing soil which is to have a structure built on them. Soils when wet retain water, and some expand in volume (smectite clay). The amount of expansion is related to the ability of the soil to take in water and its structural make-up (the type of minerals present: clay, silt, or sand). These tests are mainly ...
Mechanical soil cultivation practices, including primary tillage (mold-board or chisel plowing) followed by secondary tillage (disking, harrowing, etc.), break up and aerate soil. Mechanical traffic and intensive tilling methods have a negative impact on soil aggregates, friability, soil porosity, and soil-bulk density.
Quick clay, known as Leda Clay in Canada, is a water-saturated gel, which in its solid form resembles highly sensitive clay. This clay has a tendency to change from a relatively stiff condition to a liquid mass when it is disturbed. This gradual change in appearance from solid to liquid is a process known as spontaneous liquefaction.
Silt may occur as a soil (often mixed with sand or clay) or as sediment mixed in suspension with water. Silt usually has a floury feel when dry, and lacks plasticity when wet. Silt can also be felt by the tongue as granular when placed on the front teeth (even when mixed with clay particles). Silt is a common material, making up 45% of average ...