Word Finder - soil

definition

A mixture of mineral particles and organic material, used to support plant growth.

definition

The unconsolidated mineral or organic material on the immediate surface of the earth that serves as a natural medium for the growth of land plants.

definition

The unconsolidated mineral or organic matter on the surface of the earth that has been subjected to and shows effects of genetic and environmental factors of: climate (including water and temperature effects), and macro- and microorganisms, conditioned by relief, acting on parent material over a period of time. A product-soil differs from the material from which it is derived in many physical, chemical, biological, and morphological properties and characteristics.

definition

Country or territory.

example

Kenyan soil

definition

That which soils or pollutes; a stain.

definition

A marshy or miry place to which a hunted boar resorts for refuge; hence, a wet place, stream, or tract of water, sought for by other game, as deer.

definition

Dung; compost; manure.

example

night soil

There is an abundance of fertile soil and magnificent grazing land.

The trees are planted on irrigated soil and the fruit gathered between November and August.

The same thing that took place in Moscow had happened in all the towns and villages on Russian soil beginning with Smolensk, without the participation of Count Rostopchin and his broadsheets.

It took no root in the soil.

My auxiliaries are the dews and rains which water this dry soil, and what fertility is in the soil itself, which for the most part is lean and effete.

The soil, chiefly alluvial, though in some places arenaceous, is generally fertile and well cultivated, but a great portion is covered with forests, interspersed with lakes.

Where did He get the soil, and the water, and the seeds, and the first animals?

We cannot determine the chemical composition of soil simply by touching it.

The soil is physically or physiologically dry.

The soil in the valleys and plains of the department, especially in the Bresse, is fertile, producing large quantities of wheat, as well as oats, buckwheat and maize.

The agriculturist as a rule is rooted to the soil.

The mines suffered greatly from inundations in 1868 and 1879, and the soil on which the town is built shows signs of subsidence.

Climate and a fertile soil have been important elements in this growth.

His power was asserted in and from Canaanite soil.

It thrives only near water or where the soil is permanently moist.

The soil is very fertile, and many of the inhabitants have acquired much wealth from the cultivation of rice.

They love the soil which makes their graves, but have no sympathy with the spirit which may still animate their clay.

All those properties of soil known as texture, porosity, depth, inclination to the horizon, &c., are concerned here.

Schimperl made a distinct advance when he distinguished between physical and physiological dryness or wetness of the soil.

The soil is physiologically dry.

The valley bed is more or less covered with alluvial soil, and cultivated in places by artificial irrigation.

But it took firm root on Norman soil; it made its way to England at an early stage of its growth, and from that time it went on developing and improving on both sides of the Channel till the artistic revolution came by which, throughout northern Europe, the Romanesque styles gave way to the Gothic. Thus the history of architecture in England during the 11th and 12th centuries is a very different story from the history of the art in Sicily during the same time.

The cultivation of the soil is limited to local needs, except in the production of tobacco, which is exported to neighbouring states.

Bali belongs physically to Java; the climate and soil are the same and it has mountains of proportionate height.

They are admirably adapted for moving through the soil, where some of them live on decaying organic matter, while others are predaceous.

In the extensive region covered with boulder-clay the black earth appears only in isolated places, and the soil consists for the most part of a sandy clay, containing a much smaller admixture of humus.

The shortness of the summer, the deficiency of drainage and the depth to which the soil freezes in winter, are the circumstances which determine the characteristic features of the vegetation of the tundras.

The forests are composed of the birch, oak and other deciduous trees, the soil is dry, and the woodlands are divided by green prairies.

The chief occupation of approximately seven-eighths of the population of European Russia is agriculture, but its character varies considerably according to the soil, the climate and Agri- the geographical position of the different regions.

Broadly speaking, the forests here yield to steppes, and the soil is very fertile; but the whole region suffers periodically from drought.

Their support being removed they break away in the direction of natural joints, and the fragments fall down the slope upon the vegetable soil.

The most fertile soil is the alluvium of the' Delta, deposited during the overflows of the Mississippi.

It prefers rich fertile soil on the banks of watercourses, but does not flourish in swamps.

The 2nd and 4th Austrian corps found themselves all at once threatened in flank and rear by heavy masses of Prussian infantry, the leading brigades of the crown prince's army, and they began to withdraw towards the centre of their position in ordered brigade masses, apparently so intent on keeping their men in hand that they seem never to have noticed the approach of the Prussian reserve artillery of the Guard which (under Prince Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen) was straining forward over heavy soil and through standing corn towards their point of direction, a clump of trees close to the tower of the church of Chlum.

The soil was extremely fertile, and teemed with an industrious population.

The particular form in which lime should be applied for the best results depends upon the nature of the soil.

To enable the soil to grow good crops the upper layer must be pulverized and weathered.

This operation, performed in the garden by means of the spade, is carried on in the field on a larger scale by the plough,' which breaks the soil and by inverting the furrow-slice, exposes fresh surfaces to the disintegrating influence of air, rain and frost.

All these types of plough are virtually hoes pulled through the ground, breaking but not inverting the soil.

On the great estates in Assyria and its subject provinces were many serfs, mostly of subject race, settled captives, or quondam slaves, tied to the soil they cultivated and sold with the estate but capable of possessing land and property of their own.

He showed further, that the increase of common salt in the soil is correlated with a reduction in the number and size of the chlo,-oplastids, and therefore in the amount of chlorophyll.

Hygrophytes.Living, as these plants do, under medium conditions as regards soil, moisture and climate, they exhibit no characters which are markedly xerophytic or hydrophytic. Hence, such plants are frequently termed mesophytes.

Differences in land forms do not exert great influence on the distribution of living creatures directly, but indirectly such land forms as mountain ranges and internal drainage basins are very potent through their action on soil and climate.

Vegetation of all sorts acts in a similar way, either in forming soil and assisting in breaking up rocks, in filling up shallow lakes, and even, like the mangrove, in reclaiming wide stretches of land from the sea.

Plant life, utilizing solar light to combine the inorganic elements of water, soil and air into living substance, is the basis of all animal life.

Except such as are of coral formation, the Antilles are hilly, not to say mountainous, their summits rising in places to an elevation of 8000 ft., and nearly all, prior to their occupation by Europeans, were covered with luxuriant forest, which, assisting in the collection and condensation of the clouds brought by the trade winds, ensured its own vitality by precipitating frequent and long-continued rains; upon the fertile soil.

When the latter is reached and the pit completed, the larva settles down at the bottom, buried in the soil with only the jaws projecting above the surface.

The soil, mainly alluvial, is naturally very fertile, and wherever cultivated yields abundant crops, durra being the principal grain grown.

As late as 1571 Moscow was pillaged by a Tatar horde; but there was no longer any question of permanent political subjection to the Asiatics, and the Russian frontier was being gradually pushed forward at the expense of the nomads of the steppe by the constant advance of the agricultural population in quest of virgin soil.

Except in hard rock, the top width of a cutting, and therefore the amount of material to be excavated, increases rapidly with the depth; hence if a cutting exceeds a certain depth, which varies with the particular circumstances, it may be more economical, instead of forming the sides at the slope at which the material of which they are composed will stand, to make them nearly vertical and support the soil with a retaining wall, or to bore a tunnel.