Excerpt from The Microscopic Determination of Soil-Forming Minerals Soils are largely the result of certain natural processes, physical, chemical, and biological, upon rock and rock materials. Consa quently the greater part of the soil is made up of mineral fragments coming from the original rock components and to some extent of decomposition and alteration products derived from the degradation products.-1 It is obvious that to understand the properties of a soil, and especially those properties which are dependent upon origin, mode of formation, and composition, the minerals of the soil must be known. Much attention has been given the mechanical composition of the Soil and its consequent physical properties; the chemical com position, organic as well as inorganic; and the biological composition, especially in recent years. But little attention has been given the mineralogical composition, and that in spite of the great advances in mineralogical technique, especially along optical lines incident to rapid development of petrographical and geological investigations. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.