Classification of Soils by Numerical Methods

Summary 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.