You can get a general idea using your hands and a little water, along with a sil texture triangle. Sand will not stain your hands when wet, and has a grainy, gritty feel when you rub it between your fingers. Silt will stain your fingers when wet, and hasa much smoother feel to it. Both sand and silt are more of a three-dimensional, spherical type shape. Clay, if you look at the actual particles under a microscope, looks more like tiny sheets of paper. Clay is the only particle that really bonds the soil together when most, and a soil with a lot of clay will ribbon out when you mash it between your index finger and thumb. If it holds together like playdough, it has a lot of clay. If the soil doesn't seem to hold together well, there isn't a lot of clay.

While too much clay can be a problem, clayparticles are the onesresponsible for holding the lion's share of nutrients and moisture in the soil.


Here's a copy of the soil texture triangle. By figuring out two of the three particle types making up your soil, you can figure out your basic soil type.

http://soils.usda.gov/technical/handbook/images/Part618Exhibit8_hi.jpg