The authors studied the relationship between physical properties and organic matter content of soil by comparing the properties of natural soils with those of soils from which the organic matter was removed by hydrogen peroxide.
Six different soil samples from Hokkaido (
Table 1) were used, with a range in organic matter from 10 to 29%(
Table 2). Also samples from six different depths of Nissha soil (
Table 4) were used, with organic matter from 4 to 29%(
Table 5).
The results obtained are summarized as follows:
1) Specific gravity of the soils decreases with increasing organic content (
Fig. 2 ). The increase in specific gravity on removing organic matter increases with organic content of the soils (
Fig. 3 ).
2) The specific gravity of the organic matter decreases with increasing organic content (
Fig. 4 ).
3) Liquid limit of soils increases with organic content (
Figs. 5 and
13). This is explained by the large specific surface of organic matter. The decrease in liquid limit on air-drying increases with organic content (
Fig. 6 ). There is a large change in properties of organic matter on drying.
4) The decrease in liquid limit on removing organic matter increases with increasing organic content of the soils. The difference for fresh soils is larger than for air-dried soils (
Fig. 7).
5) The effect of drying on liquid limit occurs at a higher water content for organic matter than for the inorganic part of the soil (
Fig. 8).
6) Cation exchange capacity of the soils increases with increasing organic matter content of the soils (
Figs. 10 and
14). Liquid limit increases with increasing cation exchange capacity (
Figs. 11 and
15). Soils having higher values of liquid limit also have higher values of heat of wetting (
Fig. 16).
7) Moisture retention for soils high in organic matter is large (
Table 6, Fig. 18), and there is a large decrease in moisture retention after air-drying (
Figs. 19 and
21).
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