When you do a soil test you do not want what is on top of the soil. Most of that is dust and mulch that is blown in. You want to sample the soil at the root level for a soil test for the garden.
If you want to see the layers in the soil you would need a soil probe that samples a tube of soil or do what most geologists do and go to a nearby road cut and see the layers there where they are easily accessible. There you will be able to see the bands of soil that was deposited for millions of years not just what was deposited in the last few years.
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ButterflyLady29
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jal_ut
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Hi dude, welcome to the forum.
"Any idea what kind of soil is that?"
Looks like garden soil. Go plant and enjoy. In the fall rake your leaves and put them on the garden and till it in.
We as gardeners work with the top 4 to 8 inches of soil. The roots may go much deeper even down to 8 feet deep, however not much we can do about those lower levels.
You may find this of interest?
https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/GARDEN.pdf
"Any idea what kind of soil is that?"
Looks like garden soil. Go plant and enjoy. In the fall rake your leaves and put them on the garden and till it in.
We as gardeners work with the top 4 to 8 inches of soil. The roots may go much deeper even down to 8 feet deep, however not much we can do about those lower levels.
You may find this of interest?
https://donce.lofthouse.com/jamaica/GARDEN.pdf
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Vanisle_BC
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I think the OP (dude) was expecting his soil sample to settle into visibly distinct layers by particle size, in his jar. Seems highly doubtful he'd be investigating geologic deposition layers in his garden 
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I've never tried what he has done but I imagine there would be no distinct layers in the settled sample, just a progression from biggest to smallest; and it may be that his sample contains fairly uniform sizes anyway.
As far as I know, soil classification is generally done by sieving the sample through progressively finer meshes to separate it into amounts that are bigger-than or smaller-than the various particle sizes.
I just saw the latest post; Annalkona do you see distinct layers when you let your sample settle in a jar?
.I've never tried what he has done but I imagine there would be no distinct layers in the settled sample, just a progression from biggest to smallest; and it may be that his sample contains fairly uniform sizes anyway.
As far as I know, soil classification is generally done by sieving the sample through progressively finer meshes to separate it into amounts that are bigger-than or smaller-than the various particle sizes.
I just saw the latest post; Annalkona do you see distinct layers when you let your sample settle in a jar?
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ButterflyLady29
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