The moisture retention of several important soils in China have been measured with the pressure membrane apparatus. These soils are the laterite, the red soil (parent material), the loess, the purple soil and the light meadow soil of different textures, namely sandy loam, light loam and medium loam. The results obtained showed that the finer the soil texture, the higher the soil moisture capacity is in a higher soil suction range;whereas in the lower soil suction range, the moisture capacity might not be related to soil texture. The field capacity and wilting percentage of the light meadow soils with the three textures mentioned above in North China Plain were compared with those of the same soils under the soil suction of 0.1-0.3 and 15 bars respectively. Results showed that the wilting percentage of all these soils of the three textures approximated to that under the soil suction of 15 bars. The soil moisture retention and the availability of soil moisture under different soil suction are discussed with the concept of specific water capacity. It is indicated that specific water capacity was decreased rapidly with the increase of soil suction, i.e., the water released from soil to the plant would rapidly decrease. Thus, the availability of soil moisture would decrease too. The calculated results showed that the specific tvater capacity of moit under soil suction of 10-15 bars was about 100 times less than that under soil suction of 0.1-0.3 bars.