Five hundred grams of the soil (in the Halle Station only 250) are placed in a porcelain dish with about one liter of water and allowed to stand for some time with frequent stirring, on a water bath. After about two hours, when the soil is sufficiently softened so that with the help of a pestle it can be washed through the sieves, the process of sifting is undertaken in the following manner: Sieve No. 3 is placed over a dish containing water, the moistened soil placed therein and the sieve depressed a few centimeters under the water and the soil stirred by means of a pestle until particles no longer pass through. After the operation is ended the residue in the sieve is washed with pure water and dried. The part passing the sieve is thoroughly stirred and then washed with water into sieve No. 2 and treated as before. The product obtained in this way is brought into sieve No. 1 and carefully washed. All the products remaining on each of the sieves are dried at 100° and weighed. The portion passing sieve No. 1 is either dried with its wash water or estimated by loss by deducting from the total weight taken, the sum of the other weights obtained. If a more perfect separation of the first sieve residue be desired it can be obtained by passing it through sieves of the last series which may have meshes varying in size, _viz._: one, two, or three millimeters in diameter. Each sieve of the same class should have holes uniformly of the same size. The sieve products are characterized as follows: The part passing a three millimeter sieve is called fine earth, while the part remaining is called gravel. The fine earth is separated into the following products: The part that passes through the three millimeters opening and is left by the two millimeters opening is called _steinkies_. The product from the two millimeters opening and the residue from the one millimeter opening is called _grobkies_. The product from the one millimeter opening and the residue on the sieve No. 3 is called _feinkies_. The product from the sieve No. 3 and the residue from the sieve No. 2 is called coarse sand. The product from sieve No. 2 and the residue from sieve No. 1 is called fine sand. The product from sieve No. 1 is called dust. The dust can be further separated into sand, dust, and clay. For the examination of the clay the Kühn silt cylinder as modified by Wagner, is recommended. The cylinder has a diameter of eight centimeters and a height of thirty centimeters, and is furnished with a movable exit tube reaching to its bottom. =195. General Classification of the Soil by Sieve Analysis.=—The classification recommended by the German chemists is satisfactory but the following one is more simple. All pebbles, pieces of rock, etc., should first be separated by a two millimeters circular mesh sieve, dried at 105° and weighed. The result should be entered as pebbles and coarse sand. The finer sand may be separated with a sieve of one millimeter circular openings.