Date of Award:

5-1951

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Plants, Soils, and Climate

Department name when degree awarded

Soil Physics

Committee Chair(s)

L. A. Richards

Committee

L. A. Richards

Committee

S. A. Taylor

Abstract

A technique that will adequately describe the physical condition of water in the soil has long been desired by scientists. The method should include the effect of soluble materials on the osmotic pressure of the soil solution, and also the effect of surface force action between the soil and soil water.

Parker (8) demonstrated that the freezing point was reduced in the presence of finely divided material. This suggested the possibility of using the cryoscopic procedure to measure the physical condition of water soil. More recently, the introduction of Thermistors for accurate temperature measurement have made it desirable to investigate in greater detail the freezing point of water in soil.

The experimental work reported here deals with the freezing point of water in soil and its relation to soil moisture tension as determined on three soils in a puddled and unpuddled condition. Several freezing treatments were included in this study to investigate improvements in the freezing technique. The treatments were arranged in a standard split plot experimental design. Eighteen hundred freezing measurements were made and analyzed statistically.

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