Solute transport is not directly dependent on irrigation rate in some soils (Class I); in other soils (Class II) it is. In Class I soils, solute transport is effectively dependent on the net movement of water only, rather than its rate. A soil may be in Class I if its water content, O, and the fractional solute transport volume, based on the mean ( O′ st) and median ( O″ st) resident times in the soil remain approximately constant with changes in irrigation rate, q 0 [L T −1]. The prediction of solute transport in Class I soils is more efficient because less data is required: measurements made at one q 0 apply at many others. However, little has been published on which class different types of soil fall into. In this study, a structured clay soil (Evesham series), which exhibited a pronounced asymmetric leaching pattern, had Class I characteristics for irrigations between 0.3 and 3.0 cm h −1 under steady flow conditions. This results was encouraging because such a leaching pattern is often ascribed to flow in macropores, which is supposedly highly dependent on q 0. Many other soils may have Class I characteristics, especially as most soils contain some macropores. There was, however, a small trend of O″ st with q 0 in the Evesham soil. This trend suggests that the range of values of q 0 likely to be encountered should play a central role in testing whether a soil is Class I or II. Further studies are required for transient flow conditions for rainfall onto initially dry soils, in which q 0 and initial water content are both known to affect strongly the way in which solutes move through the soil.