An indoor test was carried out to measure time it takes for water to go from infiltration to waterlogging in 8 types of soils homogenous in texture. To predict the time, different forms of variable combination were adopted and principles of mathematical statistics used. Results show that it is feasible to forecast the time using five conventional soil physical parameters, i.e. soil bulk density, initial moisture, sand content, clay content and water supply intensity; forecasting using the multivariable linear prediction model is more or less the same in accuracy as that using the multivariable linear prediction model, except that they yield different parameters, and that the former is more simple; and when using any one of the two, relatively speaking the more factors are taken into account, the more precise the prediction would be.