1925 P. Emerson Soil Characteristics i. 22 The soils student should become acquainted with the common soil~forming minerals and rocks.

1945 P. Work Veg. Production & Marketing x. 164 See soils textbooks for discussions of the principles and practices of land drainage.

1969 Civil Engin. June 43/2 The stratum, our soils consultant recommended, could be used for safe bearing pressures of 1,200 and 1,800 psf, for dead load and total load respectively.

1973 Nature 27 July p. ii/1 (advt.) Scientists interested in sediments and in allied fields such as pedology, geomorphology, soils engineering and cement technology will find in this book a valuable research tool.

1920 Mem. Cornell Univ. Agric. Exper. Station No. 32. 326 Before seeding, some preliminary studies were made in order to ascertain the best method of obtaining the sample of soil air for analysis.

1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. iii. 81 Differences between the composition of soil air and atmospheric air become greater with depth..provided organisms remain present.

1915 T. L. Lyon et al. Soils xxiv. 542 Gypsum..was a popular soil amendment in this country before the common commercial fertilizers were used to any great extent.

1967 Boston Sunday Globe 28 Apr. b. 67/4 Whenever the garden has to be in a new housing development, liming is particularly needed and all the other additions of manure, peat and fertilizer. This is now called ‘soil amendment’ by the more technical.

1978 R. C. Oelhaf Org. Agric. iii. 37 Many ‘organic’ soil amendments are now on the market which are mainly crushed rock, selling at prices as high as 200 times the price of the ingredients.

1873 Amer. Jrnl. Sci. 106 289 In soil analysis special importance attaches to these finer sediments.

1891 R. Wallace Rural Econ. Austral. & N.Z. x. 169 No analyst, using the ordinary processes for soil analysis, can determine whether or not such infinitesimal amounts [of minerals] as are required by the crop are present or are not present in an available form in a soil.

1946 R. J. C. Atkinson Field Archaeol. ii. 62 Another technique which is becoming increasingly valuable to the excavator is that of soil-analysis.

1939 Yearbk. Agric. 1938 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 1163 Soil association, group of soils, with or without common characteristics, geographically associated in an individual pattern.

1952 L. M. Thompson Soils & Soil Fertility vi. 87 The most important grouping of series, in so far as the farmer is concerned, is that of the soil association.

1970 E. M. Bridges World Soils v. 34/1 The Scottish soil scientists have grouped topographically related soils developed on one geological parent material into a soil association.

1927 E. L. Worthen Farm Soils vi. 224 A soil auger, if available, should be used instead of a spade for sampling both surface soil and subsoil.

1975 Sci. Amer. May 93/1 The oak-hickory-tulip stand and the bigtooth aspen stand are on coarse, well-drained soil, which is aerated to as great a depth as I can reach with a two-meter soil auger.

1955 Sun (Baltimore) 26 Nov. 8/2 ‘Soil bank’ is the current farm bloc slang for a scheme by which farmers are paid by the Government for taking acreage out of the production of surplus crops.

1958 J. K. Galbraith Affluent Society xx. 221 Wherever possible euphemisms were employed—as this is written, instead of taking acres out of production they are being put into a soil bank.

1977 J. L. Harper Population Biol. Plants iv. 95 In a sense there is a circular argument here; species which have pioneered the succession are strongly persistent in the soil-bank and so appear as pioneer species in the next succession on the area. Do they persist because they are pioneers or do they become pioneers because they have persisted.

1928 Proc. & Papers 1st Internat. Congr. Soil Sci. III. 325 Soil biology is essentially a science of observation and experimentation.

1967 Burges & Raw Soil Biol. p. vi One of the stimulating developments in soil biology in recent years has been the general recognition that the soil cannot be studied solely from a chemical, microbiological, botanical or zoological stand-point.

1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. 333/2 Crust Clung or Soil Bound, is an hard, sticking together of the Earth, that nothing will grow on it.

1814 Ld. Byron Lara ii. viii. 863 That morning he had freed the soil-bound slaves.

c1875 E. Waugh Tufts of Heather II. 151 As I get owder, I get more soil-bund.

1882 A. Geikie Text-bk. Geol. iv. iii. 511 Mere gravitation aided by the downward pressure of sliding detritus or ‘soil-cap’ suffices to bend over the edges of fissile strata.

1936 Proc. Highway Res. Board (U.S.) XVI. 324/2 Tests were conducted to determine the moisture-density relations of the raw soil and the soil-cement mixtures.

1936 Proc. Highway Res. Board (U.S.) XVI. 348/2 Would the mixtures of soil-cement when compacted at optimum moisture to maximum density, maintain these characteristics under natural weathering conditions.

1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. May 481/1 Soil cement (silty material mixed with cement)..gives a building material which has a definite structural strength, besides being resistant to the action of water and frost.

1966 R. Ashworth Highway Engin. ix. 161 By far the greatest proportion of soil-cement construction has been carried out in the U.S.A.

1979 R. J. Salter Highway Design & Constr. i. 28 Soil cement may be formed by the addition of cement to a wide range of materials, including natural soils, chalk, pulverised fuel ash..and processed granular material.

1927 N. M. Comber Introd. Sci. Study Soil xiii. 130 Soil chemists and agriculturists frequently speak about soil ‘types’, and yet the definition of the various types is a matter which presents very considerable difficulty.

1959 J. D. Clark Prehist. Southern Afr. ii. 36 It should be possible..to amass information concerning the main vegetation patterns..and for this we need the help of the..soil chemist.

1971 Power Farming Mar. 54/1 That handbook..is a chemical engineer's handbook and a ‘natural’ for all contractor services. Soil chemists have played only a minor role in assembling it.

1927 C. F. Marbut in tr. K. D. Glinka Great Soil Groups p. ii In the more detailed study of the soil profile, the clearer recognition of the nature of soil horizons, soil structures, soil colors and in the relation of soil chemistry to the processes of soil development in Nature, this book will be of great suggestive value.

1941 J. S. Huxley Uniqueness of Man vi. 103 What began as a study of local cattle diseases has turned into a problem of the soil chemistry of grasslands.

1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. i. 15 In this discussion we are not concerned with the foundation or the history of soil chemistry, soil physics,..and other member parts of soil science, but rather with the inception and growth of pedology within the last century.

1913 Bull. Bur. Soils U.S. Dept. Agric. No. 96. 8 A soil class..includes all soils having the same texture, such as sands, clays, loam, etc.

1951 Soil Survey Man. (U.S. Dept. Agric. Handbk. No. 18) 135 Soil class is observed in the field by feeling the soil with the fingers.

1900 R. Warington Lect. Physical Properties Soil p. xii If seeds are to germinate in a soil,..there must be a suitable soil climate.

1976 A. Young Tropical Soils & Soil Survey i. 7 The factor which directly influences soil-forming processes is soil climate rather than air climate.

1915 Chem. Abstr. 9 1084 R. discusses the importance of soil colloids for agriculture.

1935 Nature 24 Aug. 307/2 Much attention was directed..towards the base-exchange properties of soil colloids, particularly from the mineralogical point of view.

1970 J. A. Daji Textbk. Soil Sci. xiii. 120 Soil colloids are of two kinds: (1) inorganic and (2) organic... The organic colloid..is more commonly known as humus.

1952 Sci. News Let. 5 Jan. 8/2 The new soil conditioner changes the structure of clay making it porous and crumbly.

1976 L. F. Curtis et al. Soils Brit. Isles xv. 285 Soil conditioners may be applied to add stability.

1978 Friedman & Sanders Princ. Sedimentol. v. 141/2 Zeolites..are mined from sedimentary deposits for use as fillers in the paper industry; as soil conditioners; [etc.].

1932 U.S. Dept. Agric.: Yearbk. 349 The national plan for soil and water conservation calls for the establishment of experiment stations.

1935 U.S. Laws, Statutes XLIX. i. 164 The Secretary of Agriculture shall establish an agency to be known as the ‘Soil Conservation Service’.

1944 W. H. Auden For Time Being (1945) 90 The Committees on Fen-Drainage and Soil-Conservation.

1952 W. L. Miner World of W. Faulkner ii. 61 Since 1933 the various soil conservation programs..have done much for Lafayette county.

1971 E. Afr. Standard (Nairobi) 13 Apr. 2/1 The committee stressed that unlike in the colonial era, farmers in the rural areas should now take great pains in soil conservation.

1897 Archaeol. Jrnl. Dec. 374 The soil-creep is slow and the surface soils are of great antiquity.

1925 J. F. Cox Crop Production & Soil Managem. vii. 116 (heading) The elements of fertility, common soil deficiencies, and fertilizers carrying nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium.

1935 Discovery Oct. 294/1 Non-parasitic diseases of plants, due principally to soil deficiencies.

1896 National Geographic Mag. Nov. 368 (heading) The economic aspects of soil erosion.

1944 J. S. Huxley On Living in Revol. iii. 30 It neglected conservation and amenities: the result was deforestation, soil erosion, the dust bowl.

1980 Sci. Amer. Sept. 114/2 Major problems related to land use, soil erosion and water pollution are likely to place further limits on the recovery of these nonconventional oil resources.

1920 W. W. Weir Productive Soils vii. 84 In some instances soil exhaustion may be attributed largely to the removal, mainly through cropping and leaching, of some one or all of the three named elements.

1934 A. J. Toynbee Study of Hist. I. 126 As regards the possibility of soil-exhaustion, an observation of latter-day native agriculture in the area..seems to show that a repeated clearing and burning-off of the tropical forest..does tend..to exhaust the soil.

1946 J. S. Huxley Unesco ii. 28 It is possible to exploit new agricultural methods in a way that is..disastrous to agriculture itself, by causing soil exhaustion or erosion.

1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. xvii. 896 The vitamins and accessory growth substances in soils and soil extracts.

1971 Gloss. Soil Sci. Terms (Soil Sci. Soc. Amer.) 15/2 Soil extract, the solution separated from a soil suspension or from a soil by filtration, centrifugation, suction, or pressure.

1927 C. F. Marbut tr. K. D. Glinka Great Soil Groups p. iii Some of the great soil groups have not been studied by Russian investigators.

1954 W. D. Thornbury Princ. Geomorphol. iv. 76 Mature and old soils in areas that are climatically alike are strikingly similar, and it is possible to classify them in soil groups that developed under similar climatic conditions.

1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. iv. 110 There is only limited regional association in the world distribution of type profiles or great soil groups.

1976 A. Young Tropical Soils & Soil Survey xiii. 241 Although many of the soil groups [of the FAO classification of 1974] are natural soil types, this is structurally an artificial classification.

1923 Soil Sci. 16 97 The relative amount of silica in the gray horizon appears to be higher than in the soil horizons below.

1964 W. C. Putnam Geol. x. 245/1 The C-horizon is essentially a transitional zone between the true soil horizons above and the unaltered parent material below.

1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. iii. 93 All soil horizons have a three-dimensional form, but those that have a clearly visible colour and texture..are perhaps the most convincing examples.

1961 Listener 12 Oct. 559/1 The changes that it [sc. soil science] recognizes in soil mantles and geological solids are termed ‘weathering’.

1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. i. 28 Although the soil body or soil mantle obviously has a three-dimensional form, it has been represented traditionally by a so-called ‘two-dimensional’ section or slice called the soil profile.

1898 Yearbk. U.S. Dept. Agric. 43 One of the first necessities in the development of a new district or in the improvement of an established district is an accurate soil map of the locality.

1899 Yearbook U.S. Dept. Agric. 345 In 1892 the first soil map, based upon the texture and physical properties of soils, was issued.

1927 N. M. Comber Introd. Sci. Study Soil xiii. 132 Two important bases of classification..have been invoked in the attempts to prepare soil maps of agricultural significance.

1975 J. G. Evans Environment Early Man Brit. Isles vi. 138 W. F. Grimes was one of the first archaeologists to appreciate the importance of detailed soil maps in studying the settlement distribution of early man.

1920 W. W. Weir Productive Soils ii. 22 (heading) Soil mapping.

1928 Proc. & Papers 1st Internat. Congr. Soil Sci. IV. 34 In the soil survey of the United States the term Soil Type has been applied to the unit of soil mapping.

1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. i. 24 These men and many others, who have been responsible for selective soil mapping in countries like France..and Yugoslavia, have a history of soil research behind them going back to the nineteenth century.

1939 G. Clark Archaeol. & Society ii. 38 In chalk regions subjected to heavy ploughing, soil-marks, especially when seen from the air, preserve the sites of ancient monuments.

1950 Oxoniensia 15 7 The best results of an air-survey of Celtic field-systems may be expected from photographs taken during the winter months... Soil-marks..will be more evident.

1963 E. S. Wood Collins Field Guide Archaeol. iii. i. 284 Another type of mark is the soil-mark. When earthworks or barrows are levelled, or when grass is stripped, or on bare (ploughed) land, differences in soil-colour become apparent.

1920 Engin. News-Record 30 Sept. 630/1 (heading) Research in soil mechanics.

1965 A. B. Carson Foundation Constr. iii. 70/1 Despite the relative youth of the science of soil mechanics, the literature on the subject is extensive, particularly that relating the foundation structure to the..soil or rock formation upon which it will be built.

1977 A. Hallam Planet Earth 104 The engineering geologist works with experts in the related fields of soil mechanics and rock mechanics.

1928 C. F. Marbut in Proc. & Papers 1st Internat. Congr. Soil Sci. IV. 51 Phase, a subdivision of the soil type covering departures from the typical soil characteristics, insufficient to justify the establishment of a new type, yet worthy of recognition.]

1939 Yearbk. Agric. 1938 (U.S. Dept. Agric.) 1174 Soil phase.

1946 H. J. Lutz & R. F. Chandler Forest Soils xii. 424 Soil phases as currently recognized appear to have more significance for the agriculturist than for the forester.

1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. viii. 235 Soil phase..can only be shown in detail and with precision on maps of 1:10,000 scale or larger.

1937 C. A. Hogentogler et al. Engin. Properties Soil p. vii Publications by the soil scientist, the soil physicist, the agronomist, the pedologist, and the geologist have been drawn upon.

1976 Physics Bull. Aug. 341/2 Soil physicists around the world are researching into an incredibly diverse range of phenomena, of which the diffusion of gases to and from plant roots..and the breakup of soil by tillage implements are just a few examples.

1900 R. Warington Lect. Physical Properties Soil p. xi The only early investigation on soil physics is that of Schübler, made more than sixty years ago.

1935 Nature 24 Aug. 307/1 In the Soil Physics Section, the main interest centred round problems of soil moisture.

1976 Physics Bull. Aug. 341/2 Soil physics is the branch of soil science that is concerned with the physical constitution and geometrical structure of soil, with the potentials and movements of water, gases and heat in soil, and with the deformation of soil in response to mechanical stress.

1865 G. W. Gesner A. Gesner's Pract. Treat. Coal (ed. 2) ii. 27 The driving of the soil-pipe..is the first thing done. This pipe is four inches in diameter,..and driven by a heavy block of wood, as in pile driving.

1927 Q. Jrnl. Geol. Soc. 83 190 Soil-polygons are divided into (a) ‘mud~polygons’, containing few or no stones, and (b) ‘stone~polygons’, in which stones are arranged in curious patterns over the surface of the mud.

1963 D. W. Humphries & E. E. Humphries tr. H. Termier & G. Termier Erosion & Sedimentation iv. 86 The periglacial zones are equally rich in detrital material and display phenomena completely comparable with those of hot deserts: loess, reg, soil polygons, ‘dreikanters’ and dunes.

1967 M. J. Coe Ecol. Alpine Zone Mt. Kenya 71 On ridge tops, which are usually scattered with boulders and small stones, soil polygons are particularly common.

1940 C. A. Heiland Geophysical Explor. x. 646 As an example of the galvanic application of intermediate frequency methods, the soil resistivity bridge..is illustrated.

1964 R. F. Ficchi Electr. Interference viii. 153 Probably the biggest stumbling block in such analytical calculations is the vaguely defined soil-resistivity measurements.

1967 Gloss. Terms Gas Industry (B.S.I.) 68 Soil resistivity survey, the determination of the electrical resistivity of the soil at intervals along the route of a main to assist in designing a cathodic protection system.

1902 Bull. U.S. Fish Commission 1901 21 58 For taking soil samples an instrument was made after drawings in Delbecque.

1975 New Yorker 28 Apr. 112/2 District-level officials are now collecting soil samples, so that in the future they can advise the co-ops on the most productive way to use their land.

1902 Bull. U.S. Fish Comm. 1901 21 58 (caption) Soil sampler, after Delbecque.

1950 N.Z. Jrnl. Agric. June 553/3 Holes may be dug with a spade, sunk with a post-hole borer, or cored with a soil sampler [in order to examine the structure of the soil].

1927 E. L. Worthen Farm Soils Index 409/1 Soil sampling.

1958 J. Blish Case of Conscience (1959) iv. 41 We will start a soil-sampling programme.

1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 9 Feb. 97/3 Soil-sampling for ectoparasitic eel-worms may be worth a thought.

1915 Chem. Abstr. 9 1084 (heading) The development of soil science from the earliest attempts to the beginning of the twentieth century.

1916 (title) Soil science.

1935 Nature 24 Aug. 308/1 The very large number of papers dealing with the practical side of soil science..emphasised the dominating influence exerted on the development of soil science by modern economic conditions.

1938 A. B. Yolland tr. A. A. J. de Sigmond Princ. Soil Sci. 1 The first to try to liberate soil science from this position was the German geologist Frederick Augustus Fallon, who, however, by basing his soil classification upon geological-petrographic principles unconsciously subordinated pedology to geology.

1958 I. W. Cornwall Soils for Archaeologist 13 For information about the earth the archaeologist turns first to the sciences of geology, geography and pedology (soil-science).

1972 Nature 28 Jan. 231/2 The most characteristic Russian contribution to science was soil science.

1979 W. L. Pritchett Properties & Managem. Forest Soils p. v Most of the basic principles of soil science apply to forest soils as well as to agricultural soils.

1921 Proc. 41st Ann. Meeting Soc. Promotion Agric. Sci., 1920 (U.S.) 117 The soil scientist must be concerned primarily with the accumulation or assimilation of knowledge concerning the soil without reference to the use to be made of that knowledge.

1958 Times 1 July (Agric. Suppl.) p. ii/2 The plant breeder and the soil scientist have worked hand in hand; together they are responsible for disproving the gloomy prophecies of increasing world hunger so commonly heard only 10 years ago.

1928 Proc. & Papers 1st Internat. Congr. Soil Sci. IV. 54 Soil separate, one of the several grain-size groups into which the soil is separated by mechanical analysis.

1951 Soil Survey Man. (U.S. Dept. Agric. Handbk. No. 18) 207 (heading) Size limits of soil separates from two schemes of analysis.

1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. ii. 55 These categories of particle size—sometimes called the soil separates—are mixed in any soil into what is called its texture.

1905 Field Operations of U.S. Bur. Soils, 1904 35 Whenever there is a general relationship between these two classes of soils, due either to their geological origin, their method of formation, or their location within an area, a common distinctive locality name is used, and the soils thus grouped together are called a soil series.

1946 L. D. Stamp Britain's Struct. & Scenery xi. 95 Within each soil series there may be a considerable range of texture which is important ecologically.

1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. i. 29 A soil series is a composite unit, but being the basic unit of soil mapping it is expected to be predominantly composed of one named soil profile type and confined to one parent material.

1962 Listener 25 Jan. 174/2 The ground beyond the filter-bed is what we call soil-sick.

1934 Webster's New Internat. Dict. Eng. Lang. Soil sickness.

1938 Encycl. Brit. Bk. of Year 111/1 Among more recent concepts is that of the possibility of beneficial root-excretions, to which the older view ascribed toxic properties and the responsibility for soil-sickness.

1960 Farmer & Stockbreeder 9 Feb. 97/1 We have long been familiar with the potato root and sugar-beet eelworm..but other types are now known to cause ‘soil sickness’.

1901 Bull. Div. Soils U.S. Dept. Agric. No. 17. 5 Soil solutions from which plants draw their food are for the most part aqueous solutions of the mineral components of the soil.

1957 G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. viii. 556 The over-all composition of soil solutions is in fact very similar to that of average river water.

1973 Sci. Amer. May 48/2 Perhaps 5 percent of a plant's dry weight is minerals. Eight elements account for the bulk of this amount... All are normally present in the ‘soil solution’, as the water of the soil is called, at very low concentrations.

1934 Proc. Amer. Soc. Testing Materials 34 ii. 737 Investigations along the line suggested by Mr. Housel are also considered in our soil stabilization work.

1950 Engineering 13 Jan. 44/3 They were used in conjunction with processes of soil stabilisation in which the stability of the soil under traffic load is improved by adding clay, sand or gravel.

1969 P. L. Capper & W. F. Cassie Mech. Engin. Soils (ed. 5) xi. 234 An important method of soil stabilization is by the use of resins.

1910 12th Rep. Michigan Acad. Sci. 52 A comparison of the Asulkan and Greenland soil stripes with the great barrancas, suggests that the width of ridge..is in some way a function of the viscosity of the rock paste.

1954 W. D. Thornbury Princ. Geomorphol. iv. 89 Earth stripes or soil stripes are similar to stone stripes except that they have finer textures.

1900 Yearbk. U.S. Dept. Agric. 1899 26 A detailed soil survey has been undertaken of the soils of Maryland.

1924 F. E. Bear Soil Managem. vii. 56 In the Illinois soil survey, silt is defined as a separate the particles in which may vary from 0·03 to 0·001 millimeter in diameter.

1966 R. Ashworth Highway Engin. iii. 49 The soil survey involves an exploration of the soil conditions along the proposed road alignment by means of boreholes or trial pits.

1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. i. 23 Some of the later private surveys have..introduced soil terms and definitions adopted later by the national soil surveys.

1921 Proc. 41st Ann. Meeting Soc. Promotion Agric. Sci., 1920 (U.S.) 119 Before the soil surveyor had mapped textural soil units over any considerable area he discovered that these units are not all alike, that they are not ultimate soil units therefore but soil groups.

1902 Instructions to Field Parties & Descr. Soil Types (U.S. Bur. of Soils) 15 The selection of a provisional name for each soil type should be made, and in all correspondence and reports this name should be used when speaking of the type.

1928 Proc. & Papers 1st Internat. Congr. Soil Sci. IV. 41 The soil type is a subdivision of the soil series based primarily and almost wholly on the texture of the surface soil... The term Soil Type has been used by some writers with a more inclusive meaning, sometimes to indicate the general characteristics of the soils of a region.

1954 W. D. Thornbury Princ. Geomorphol. iv. 78 A common soil series in the middle western states is the Miami series... Included in this series are such soil types as the Miami fine sandy loam, Miami loam, Miami silt loam, and Miami silty clay loam.

1967 M. J. Coe Ecol. Alpine Zone Mt. Kenya 71 Soil movement and deformation are of great significance in governing the distribution of soil types and in their effect on vegetation.

1972 J. G. Cruickshank Soil Geogr. i. 26 In 1904 the soil series was introduced to include all soil types developed on the same parent material.

1926 Sci. Amer. Feb. 97/3 Erosion or soil wash is impoverishing our sloping farm lands.

1962 Times 2 June 11/6 The annual migration follows a restricted round which includes short halts for cultivation by the sailaba method. Rough earthen bunds are built in the wadis to form a trap for the soil wash from the occasional flash floods and the sorghum and millet seeds are sown in these small patches of saturated soil.

1892 J. M. H. Munro Soils & Manures i. 25 What this soil water contains we may see by examining the water running from the drain-pipes of any arable field when no crop is growing on it.

1921 Discovery Feb. 47/1 Plants require moisture, and in taking this up by the root-hairs, they also take up their food, consisting of salts dissolved in the soil water.

1976 Physics Bull. Aug. 343/3 One of the main obstacles to progress in the physics of soil water is the lack of quantitative methods for describing adequately the geometrical structure of soil at its various levels of organization.

1519 W. Horman Vulgaria xiii. f. 140 I hytte my heed ageynst the soyle or transumpt.