Soil Properties
Soil is the sum of its parts. The most basic ingredients include sand, silt, and clay of various particle sizes, as well as rock fragments, roots, live organisms, air, and water. But depending on your location, the proportion of those ingredients can vary dramatically.
Farmers are particularly interested in soil composition because it affects the amount of water stored in the soil that is available to plants, or the “available water capacity.” Soils with more sand tend to drain water faster than soils with more clay, while soils with more silt tend to have intermediate drainage properties.
