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Dirt, soil, what’s the difference? Good question. Let’s think about this before delving into our soil content primer. We’ll start with simply gathering a sample of each one. Sweep the floor in your home and you’ll have what most of us refer to as dirt, or just get a sample from the vacuum cleaner if you dare. What you’ll discover is that dirt is composed of crumbs, hair, lint, skin cells, and the unfortunate arthropod (e.g., an ant). Okay, so what is soil? Dig up a sample of earth from your backyard or obtain some potting soil and you’ll basically have three components: sand, silt, and clay. Not very exciting—but it can be with some basic information and investigative inquiry techniques.