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If the native soil isn't too rocky or gooey, building ditches along one or both sides of the driveway gives you material to work with when crowning the driving surface. Of course, it doesn't hurt that gravel is also far less expensive up front and over time, and that if you ever have to remove or realign a gravel driveway, you can just rip it up, rake it out, and re-vegetate. Unprocessed gravel - usu-ally sold as pit-run or bank-run gravel - can be an excellent and inexpensive amendment to soils that would otherwise be unsuitable in wet weather. Like any unpaved road, a properly built gravel driveway is as much art as science. [Extracted from the article]

The article deals with the possibilities of using local meshless methods for modeling the movement of avalanches and rapid slopes movements. These are dangerous phenomena that can cause extensive damage to the infrastructure of mountainous areas and numerical models are therefore an important tool in their prediction. Today, meshless methods are increasingly developed in many different areas for their potential advantages over conventional numerical methods. For the development of the model of debris flow, the article used the local method of weighted squares, as it proved suitable for addressing this type of differential equations. To verify the possibilities of this method, in the article, we focused on the models of dry granular soil movement and compared the results of the solution to several known cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• High-cycle triaxial experiments on granular soils specifically prepared with various fabrics orientations are presented. • Strain accumulation behavior transits from cyclic shakedown to ratcheting, as fabric orientation deviates more from the loading direction. • An anisotropic model with fabric evolution is proposed to unify the description of high-cycle shakedown/ratcheting for varied fabric anisotropy, density, and cyclic stress path under drained and undrained conditions. Although the mechanical response of granular materials strongly depends on the interplay between their anisotropic internal structure (fabric) and loading direction, such coupling is not explicitly considered in existing high-cycle experimental datasets and models. High-cycle experiments on granular specimens specifically prepared with various fabric orientations are presented. It is found that the high-cycle strain accumulation behavior can change remarkably, from shakedown to ratcheting, when the fabric orientation deviates more from the loading direction. Inspired by the experimental observations, a fabric-dependent anisotropic high-cycle model is proposed, by proper recasting of an existing model formulated within Critical State Theory, into the framework of Anisotropic Critical State Theory. The model explicitly accounts for the fabric evolution, which is linked to plastic modulus, dilatancy and kinematic hardening rules. The model can quantitatively reproduce the high-cycle strain accumulation (i.e., shakedown and ratcheting) under drained conditions, as well as pre-liquefaction and post-liquefaction responses granular materials having widely ranged fabric anisotropy, densities and cyclic loading types using a unified set of constants. It exhibits a unique feature of simulating the distinct high-cycle strain accumulation and liquefaction of granular material with various fabric anisotropy, while the existing high-cycle models treat them equally. The successful reproduction of the anisotropic sand element response under high-cycle drained and undrained conditions makes it possible to perform whole life analysis of various foundations on granular soil subjected to high-cycle loading events. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the proper marriage of soil and seed is vital, that it can make the difference between food-plot success and failure in deer hunting. It mentions the three most crucial aspects to food plot success are soil pH, seed planting depth and matching seed to soil type; and also mentions the food plot's topography will affect drainage and nutrient-holding characteristics. INSET: The Five Soil Classes.

The article focuses on the new model enhancements which are focused on simplified operation, lower operating costs, and improved performance. It mentions that the Caterpillar's line of utility compactors has received a product line refresh with the addition of 10 new tandem and combination models spanning the 2- to 5-ton weight classes, said Brian Nagel, sales support consultant.

Research from Auburn University suggests continued advancement in the capacity of spinning disk broadcast spreaders in order to increase the efficiency of the field operation has likely enhanced the risk for well known issues related to obtaining good uniformity in product spread patterns for common granular fertilizer blends. Recommendations are provided in order to increase awareness of this risk and ensure optimal results can be obtained from this popular fertilizer application method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The FCC put its stamp of approval on its new Digital Opportunity Data Collection to improve data collection and mapping for rural broadband. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three independent crop consultants offer several tips on early season protection, including seed treatments, in-furrow treatments, sprays and cultural practices. The standard seed treatments that come with the seed do a good job of protecting seed and seedlings. A nematicide seed treatment helps, and we also try to plant nematode-tolerant varieties in fields with a nematode history. [Extracted from the article]

• Avalanches from experiments, models, and empirical data from nature are compared. • All have comparable power-law size distributions with exponent ≈ 5 = 3. • Temporally directed network of nearest events capture the structure of the catalogs. • Distributions of spatial and temporal separations of connected events have power-law exponents ≈ 1. • Degree distributions peak at ≈ 5 − 8 incoming or outgoing connections. • Avalanching behaviors may be better understood from a consolidation of different approaches. Relaxational processes in many complex systems often occur in the form of avalanches resulting from internal cascades from across the system scale. Here, we probe the space, time, and magnitude signatures of avalanching behavior using a network of temporally-directed links subject to a spatial distance criterion between events in the entire catalog. We apply this method onto three systems with avalanche-like characteristics: (i) highly controllable scaled experiments , particularly that of a slowly-driven pile of granular material in a quasi-two-dimensional setup with open edges; (ii) the sandpile, a numerical model of nearest-neighbor interactions in a grid; and (iii) substantially complete empirical data on earthquakes from southern California. Apart from the recovery of the fat-tailed statistics of event sizes, we recover similar power-laws in the spatial and temporal aspects of the networks of these representative systems, hinting at possible common underlying generative mechanisms governing them. By consolidating the results from experiments, numerical models, and empirical data, we can gain a better understanding of these highly nonlinear processes in nature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fall 2018 and spring and fall of 2019 were very hard on soils, causing lots of soil compaction. They will improve the organic matter content of your soils, reduce compaction, improve soil health and increase yields. [Extracted from the article]

The article discusses the importance of hybrid selection in agronomy practice as it impacts yield. The author suggests reading trial data from varied plots in different locations to learn about the handling of different hybrids in a variety of conditions. When enough trial data has been collected, the author recommends focusing on the variables in each field affecting hybrid choice including soil type and drainage, growing degree days and days to maturity, and disease and insect issue history. INSET: Picking hybrids by smartphone.