Classification of soils by numerical methods

Twenty-three profile descriptions of soils in Glamorganshire and the laboratory measurements on soil samples of the ninety-one horizons into which they were divided by the surveyor were examined by the methods of numerical taxonomy. The similarities between the horizons calculated by these methods were reduced to a table of similarities between profiles by averaging the similarities of those horizons that matched best, judged by their similarity and order in the profile. The soil-similarity matrix was sorted to give a dendrogramme. Calculation of the latent roots and vectors of the matrix gave a two dimensional representation of the relationships between the soils. The Great Soil Groups to which the surveyor assigned his profiles can be picked out in this diagram.