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Soil Individuals and Soil Classification¹

ABSTRACT

The standing of 8 kinds of soil bodies as soil individuals was evaluated in the light of the following principles, derived from an analysis of basic ideas: 1) Classes are abstract fields, not groups of individuals. 2) Artificial individuals of continuous universes are different from natural individuals of particulate universes. 3) Classes in continuous universes are independent of individuals. 4) Artificial individuals are memberbodies of minimum size. Soil particles, soil horizons, soil landscape units (including polypedons), and delineated soil bodies are natural individuals, but only within nonsoil universes. The universes of soil resulting from any of the common concepts of soil as an isotropic material or an anisotropic body are continuous, and contain hand specimens, soil profiles taken as bodies, "individuals", and pedons as artificial individuals. These may be regarded as soil individuals. There is need for a concept of soil corresponding to some kind of soil landscape unit.

¹ Technical Paper No. 1814, Oregon Agr. Exp. Sta., Oregon State University, Corvallis. Presented before Div. S-5, Soil Science Society of America, Nov. 17–21, 1964, Denver, Colo.

² Associate Professor of Soils.

Received for publication May 8, 1964. Accepted for publication September 16, 1964.