collect field specimens

We went to the buffalo grassland in front of reception to collect specimens of the soil on the land. There is good soil and bad soil because not all the grass was cut for the bales. We took 20 samples all around the land and not on one spot. We used the “pik” to loosen the soil and then used the spade to make the hole deeper. After the hole is deep enough you scratch the side of the hole and collect that soil. The good soil goes in a bag and the bad soil goes in a bag. You place one bag e.g the good soil and spread it out and then mix it. You take opposite sides and pull it to the other side. You do it on both sides. You place it back in a bag and place a tag on the bag to say what it is. What soil it is, and if you want chemical or biological testing. The date is important. You can say what time of the year you collected it. Make sure you collect a bit of roots as well. Send it to the lab so they can test it. You can test it for biogical or chemical. Biogical is for living things and chemical is for oxygen and so on. You need to mark the area where you collected the soil by marking it. You can put something on a tree or on the side of the land. You can mark it on a map as well and a GPS. You can use different kinds of stuff to collect the soil. You can use electrical stuff to loosen the soil. You can use physical or mechanical ways to collect it. The reason for collecting the soil from top to bottom is so that you can see what is deeper in the ground.