THE INFLUENCE OF TEXTURE ON THE MOISTURE CHARACTERISTICS OF SOILS

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Abstract
Summary: When the 1/3 and 15 atm. percentages were used as the upper and lower limits of available‐water, respectively, the values for the available‐water capacities (AWC's) of the soils studied were smaller than those obtained by using the direct sampling technique for the upper limit, and the permanent wilting percentage (determined on soil cores) for the lower limit of available‐water; the differences varied from 9 to 76 per cent with a mean of almost 40 per cent for the eleven soils studied. The importance of techniques for the determinations of the AWC of soils is discussed. The moisture characteristic of a soil could be considerably influenced by the structure of the soil sample on which the determination was made, and it is concluded that the moisture characteristic should be determined on undisturbed soil cores.