238 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



55 inches. You know the Allegheny mountains cross Pennsyl- 

 vania. In the counties through which these mountains cross 

 we have 55 inches of rainfall, because most of the storms come 

 from the southwest ; and as they pass up the side of the moun- 

 tains the atmosphere becomes cool and the moisture contained 

 by the atmosphere precipitates in rain. After the clouds have 

 passed over the Allegheny mountains, and over Fulton and 

 Adams counties, one of the apple-producing sections of our 

 state, the atmosphere becomes heated, consequently, it holds a 

 large amount of moisture, and we have only about 35 inches 

 of rainfall in these counties. W'e get most of our rain from 

 the southwest storms, with the exception of the coastly storms 

 coming up the Atlantic coast and striking the eastern section 

 of our state from which, I suppose, you get the greatest amount 

 of rainfall. All this has little to do with my subject, but I 

 wanted to introduce the question in order to demonstrate why 

 we have so much larger rainfall in some sections of the state 

 than in others. 



The question is : How to conserve the soil moisture ? You 

 and I cannot control the rainfall, but we can control the moist- 

 ure, if we understand our business as we ought. We know that 

 certain parts, or sections, of fields produce a much larger crop 

 than other parts of the same field, with the same amount of 

 rainfall, the same cultivation and the same seed. The question 

 that has come to your mind and to mine is, why has that little 

 section a better crop, when the soil is naturally no better there 

 than the rest. The reason is, because there is more fertility 

 there ; and the question of soil moisture, I think, frequently is 

 not of as much consequence as the question of fertility. If 

 the fertility in your soil is in the right condition, so the plants 

 can use it, they will not fire ; that is, they will not suffer from 

 the lack of moisture, as in a soil where that fertility is not in 

 available condition^ This is a question the farmer can contro!, 

 and this is the question I am going to talk upon. I repeat, this 

 question of fertility is just as important, and even more so, 

 in order to get maximum crops, as the question of soil moist- 

 ure, and this is where the matter of humus comes in. 



The question is not stated correctly ; it should have been 

 "Organic Matter and Soil Moisture." While it is organic mat- 



