As a prelude to laboratory and field research on pH reduction of organic and mineral soils of the Everglades, a convenient method was needed to quantify the pH responsiveness of various soils. Using 17 soils of widely differing physical and chemical characteristics, a method was developed which consisted of treatment with distilled water and 8 concentrations of HCl to apply 0 to 0.67 mmol(H+)/cm3soil. The resulting titration curves were fit to equations of the form:pH = B / [1 −EXP (−c−rx)]where:x = mmol (H+)/cm3and B, c and r are fitted parameters. Calculations based on the fitted equations provide a basis for quantitative comparison of the buffer intensity for widely divergent soils. The soils used to demonstrate the applicability of this approach are expected to bracket the responses of high‐pH soils in other locations, so a similar empirical approach should be generally useful to quantitavelycomparepH responsiveness of soils.