I too, have reservations about the actual value of munselling everthing in sight. However, I would like to ask how many people are even using the munsel charts correctly. The comments to this list suggest not. There ARE directions in the front of the book! If I remember correctly, the munsel is supposed to be a color average of the soil (so yes, you are supposed to mix that mottled soil, not give it several munsel values) and it is supposed to be of damp soil (so doing wet and dry valuations is a wast of time, according to the guys that made the chart up). They also suggest the kinds of lighting conditions under which you view the stuff--neither direct sunlight or deep shade.... So, if we aren't using the charts in the professionally approved or suggested method, the question as to why bother becomes even more important. Mary Ellin D'Agostino [log in to unmask]