Soil Texture

       We found that our soil had a fair mix of sand, silt, and clay. When we were judging the soil sample that we had dampened and mixed with our hands, we found that the soil was slightly sticky and not too grainy.
       With our wet soil ball we were able to create a ribbon of soil that was two inches long by squeezing the ball between my forefinger and thumb. This is a fairly long ribbon and leads us to believe that the soil is heavier in clay. 

Soil Ribbon: about 2 inches

     A portion of our soil was mixed with water and after being allowed to sit, the larger particles separated out and settled in the order of large particle sand on the bottom, medium sized particle silt in the middle, and the fine particle clay settling on the top. After our soil sample had divided into the three levels we found that it was 40% sand, 50% silt, and 10% clay.
    

Top Left: above the pencil is clay

Top Right: in between the two pencils is silt

Middle: the settles soil, water, and organic matter

Bottom Left: a view of the top of the graduated cylinder

Bottom Right: below the pencil is sand

      Our soil was a medium loam, but other groups had soils with more silt or more clay. Over all the soil in our area is usually not too high in sand, this could be directly related to the fact that we do not have large sources of sand near by. Like many areas in the United States, our soil is heavier in clay, but depending on the area it may or may not have large amounts of silt. Most soil in our area are generally a clay, silt, or loam like mix.

 Our soil was a medium loam, represented by the dot.

This short video clip shows where the different sized particles settled.