The various factors affecting the mechanical behavior of a cemented silty clay are looked upon in this article.Chemical treatments with a 0.2 N solution of EDTA to remove cementing agents and with 0.6- or 35-g/l solutions of NaCl to study the influence of salinity were carried out on soil specimens. The various treatments were carried out by permeating the solutions through the specimen until the electrical conductivity of the outflow equaled that of the inflow. The pre-consolidation pressure was observed to vary from 2.4 kg/m2 for the specimens treated with EDTA and 0.6 g/l NaCl to 5.0 kg/cm2 for the specimens treated with 35 g/l NaCl, while the compression index remained essentially constant for all specimens but one. It is shown that the compressibility of a clay is dependent on both its stress and its environmental history.Shear strength tests by conventional triaxial compression and by simple shear device were also carried out on both chemically treated and untreated soil specimens. It was concluded that the removal of the cementing agents slightly changed the stiffness of the soil structure. While it apparently did not change the results at failure, it was concluded that cementing bonds most likely were broken at very small strains, resulting in no substantial increase of strength except under very small consolidation pressure.