Sandy soils are light and typically very free draining, usually holding water very poorly due to very low organic content. Loam soils are somewhat heavier than sandy soils, but also tend to be fairly free draining, again, due to typically low organic content. Clay soils are very common in some areas, particularly around urban areas where fill soils have been used to establish grade in subdivisions and developments. Clay soils are not typically free draining, and water tends to take a long time to infiltrate. When wet, such soils tend to allow virtually all water to run-off.
Clay soils tend to be heavy and difficult to work when dry.
Designing an experiment on the influence of soil characteristics on plant growth. In this portion of the lab you will design an experiment in which you investigate the effects of soil physical characteristics on several features of plant growth. It is important to realize that there are many combinations of factors that might be investigated in your experiment. But, while this might provide important insights into the effects of compaction per se , you might speculate that soils of different textural classes, when compacted to different degrees have various impacts on plant growth. But then we must decide on the levels of the experimental treatments.