Editing USDA soil taxonomy (section)

{{short description|Classification of soil types}}
'''USDA soil taxonomy''' (ST) developed by the [[United States Department of Agriculture]] and the [[National Cooperative Soil Survey]] provides an elaborate [[Soil classification|classification]] of [[soil types]] according to several parameters (most commonly their properties) and in several levels: ''Order'', ''Suborder'', ''Great Group'', ''Subgroup'', ''Family'', and ''[[Soil series|Series]]''.  The classification was originally developed by [[Guy D. Smith|Guy Donald Smith]], former director of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's soil survey investigations.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1981/08/29/guy-d-smith-73-usda-soil-expert-dies/962ae425-d6cb-40c0-af27-c0fcb1700b2d/|title=Guy D. Smith, 73, USDA Soil Expert, Dies|last=Donovan|first=Alan|date=1981-08-29|newspaper=Washington Post|access-date=2017-11-15|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>