Soil Texture and Methods of Analysis

Soil texture is the basic property of a soil  related to the  size of individual mineral particles, which cannot be easily altered.  It specifically refers to the relative size of soil particles.  The rate and extent of many important physical and chemical reactions
in soils are governed by texture because it determines the amount of surface on which the reaction can occur.  Different size groups of soil particles, termed as  soil separates were arbitrarily chosen by  International Society of Soil Science (ISSS) as clay, fine sand, coarse sand, and gravel. The  United States Department of Agriculture  (USDA) has further subdivided the sand fraction.  The two systems of textural classification