ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses various sampling techniques in environmental and agricultural sciences that provide a representative sample. It explains the probability sampling: simple random sampling, systematic sampling, and stratified random sampling. The chapter introduces those sampling techniques that have desirable properties for making appropriate generalizations. It explains the importance of sampling in statistical analyses and defines the key sampling concepts: population, parameter, sample, and statistic. The chapter distinguishes between different sampling procedures, and assesses when and how to use them. It explains the nature of sampling distributions, computes the mean and standard deviation, and determines the pattern of distribution of a random sampling distribution of means. The chapter provides the nature of a sampling distribution of percentages, evaluates their mean and standard deviation. It defines the Central Limit Theorem and explains the relationship between the standard error of the mean and the size of the sample.
