HADAS, A., Department of Soil Physics, Institute of Soils and Water, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, 50-250, Israel
LENNARD, G., Department of Soil Physics, Institute of Soils and Water, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, 50-250, Israel

The compressive‐tensile stress ratio at failure under unidirectional loading of air‐dry samples of 10 soils was compared with their clay and CaCO3 contents, and their surface areas. Deviations from the commonly assumed Griffith theory were found for two soils. No special relationships were found between soil constituents and associated compressive tensile stress ratio, even though this ratio tends to decrease slightly with increasing clay percentage. Copyright © 1988, Wiley Blackwell. All rights reserved