Revised official British method for mechanical analysis

In a former number of this Journal (1), there appeared a report on the mechanical analysis of soils by this sub-committee of the Agricultural Education Association. The report contained proposals for certain modifications of the earlier A.E.A. (1906) method, of which the most important were the introduction of hydrogen peroxide as a dispersive agent in the preliminary treatment, the use of the pipette method for the actual mechanical analysis, and the abolition of the fine gravel (3 mm.–1 mm.) fraction. This report was officially adopted by the A.E.A. and the method of mechanical analysis therein proposed was accepted as the new standard to replace the 1906 method. The full details were published in the Journal of the Association (2).