topsoil

Dandy's Topsoils salt mountain in Sealand and (above) Rory Tompsett grits a driveway

This adjustment of grade should always be done on subsoils rather than by manipulating healthy topsoils. If topsoil still exists in an area where grades are to be changed, strip the topsoil before grading to new elevations.

Residual levels of triazine in the topsoils and subsoils were determined by solvent extraction and gas chromatography (Roos et al.

Agronomic and socioeconomic conditions encountered in the tropical uplands are often characterized by shallow topsoils overlying subsoils with chemical or physical constraints.

Not only can animals strip away plant cover, leaving topsoils erodible, but their trampling can also compact soil, reducing its ability to hold moisture.

Presumably, the only notable form of aeolian activity to have occurred in the last 640 years will have been dust deposition to topsoils, and its possible remobilisation.

In conclusion, 1) the productivity of the two Mollisols studied, as measured by plant yield and N-mineralization potentials, was substantially reduced by topsoil removal, and 2) additions of N or P fertilizers to eroded topsoils improved yields, but these could not reach those attained on non-eroded topsoils under the same fertilizer treatment.

The topsoils (50 mm in depth) in each column were mixed with different amendments and all columns received the same Ca equivalent of 5000 kg/ha of Ca[CO.sub.3], with the exception of the control treatment (no amendment).

The 2 main treatments were soil type (the 3 topsoils described above) and incubation water content [air-dry, wet (-50 kPa), or wet/dry cycles].

If your soil is hopelessly hard and infertile, line your car trunk with a tarp or old shower curtain, and head to a garden center for a load of 40-pound bags of topsoil. Slash drainage holes in the bottoms of the bags, then lay them over the area you want for your growing bed.