This book is the quintessential tool for understanding our greatest natural resource. For the teacher or student of earth science, agriculture, or land management; for the farmer with a thousand acres; or for the gardener with one precious plot, Soil Science Simplified offers a thorough and very readable look at soil--its formation, components, chemistry, fertility, and erosion. From the complexities of how water, temperature, and soil fertility affect the life of plants to the technical aspects of soil classification, engineering, surveying, and management, all of soil science is clearly laid out in this new edition.

The authors have expanded their discussions of soil water, temperature, and engineering and have updated their account of soil classification. With an eye to readers here and abroad and to the variety of applications for their book, they use both English and metric units of measurement.