Soil loam soil with a small amount of organic material is considered "ideal", inasmuch as fertilizers or manure are currently used to mitigate nutrient losses due to crop yields in the long term. The mineral constituents of a loam soil might be 40% sand, 40% silt and the balance 20% clay by weight. Soil texture affects soil behaviour, in particular, its retention capacity for nutrients (e.g., cation exchange capacity) and water. Sand and silt are the products of physical and chemical weathering of the parent rock; clay, on the other hand, is most often the product of the precipitation of the
Soil cement wear. In comparison with granular bases, soil cement bases can be thinner for the same road load, owing to their slab-like behavior that distributes load over broader areas. In-place or nearby located materials can be used for construction - locally found soil, stone, or reclaimed granular base from a road being reconstructed. This conserves both material and energy. The strength of soil-cement bases actually increases with age, providing good long-term performance. A cement-treated base is a mix of granular soil aggregates or aggregate material with Portland cement and water. It is similar in use and performance to soil-cement base. Developed