Explain the Texural system of soil classification.

US Bureau of soil has developed a triangular classification system, giving different names to soils, containing different percentage of sand, silt and clay size particles, which is known as Textural classification of soil. The chat is shown below.

The first step in the classification of soil is to determine the percentage of sand, silt and clay size material in a given sample by mechanical analysis. With the given relative percentage of sand, silt and clay, a point is located on the triangular chart as shown in the figure. The designation given on the set for the area in which the point falls is then used as the classification of the samples.

This method of classification does not reveal any properties of soil other than grain size distribution. Because of its simplicity, it is widely used by worker in the field of agricul....

US Bureau of soil has developed a triangular classification system, giving different names to soils, containing different percentage of sand, silt and clay size particles, which is known as Textural classification of soil. The chat is shown below.

The first step in the classification of soil is to determine the percentage of sand, silt and clay size material in a given sample by mechanical analysis. With the given relative percentage of sand, silt and clay, a point is located on the triangular chart as shown in the figure. The designation given on the set for the area in which the point falls is then used as the classification of the samples.

This method of classification does not reveal any properties of soil other than grain size distribution. Because of its simplicity, it is widely used by worker in the field of agriculture and Highway Engineering.

One significant disadvantage of this method is that the textural name as derived from the chart does not always correctly express the physical characteristics of the soils. For examples: since some clay size particles are much less active  than other, a soil described as clay on the basis of this system may have different physical properties.