Lysimeter Experiments 15 



Tanks 2, 4, and 8 were never planted to any crop, and all vegetation 

 was prevented from growing on them by hoeing. In the year 1910, when 

 maize was growing on most of the other tanks, the implanted tanks were 

 hoed at the same time and in the same way as were the tanks planted 

 to maize; when other crops were growing on the planted tanks, the 

 implanted ones were merely scraped with a hoe. In each tank planted 

 to maize there were four hills of maize with three plants in a hill. Seven 

 rows of oats and seven rows of wheat were sown in each tank planted 

 to those crops. On tanks 6 and 10, oats were planted in 1910, and a 

 mixture of grasses, consisting of timothy, Kentucky bluegrass, and redtop, 

 was sown with the oats. These tanks were then kept permanently in 

 these grasses. In 1914 there was a notably smaller proportion of blue- 

 grass and a larger proportion of timothy and redtop on the unlimed soil 

 (tank 6) than on the limed soil (tank 10). 



Timothy was seeded with the wheat in the fall of 1911 on tanks 1, 3, 

 5, 7, 9, 11, and 12, and in the spring of 1912 clover also was seeded on 

 tanks 5 and 9. All crops grew excellently, but much of the wheat was 

 winterkilled and the crop was cut for hay about the time it headed, and 

 another crop mixed with timothy was cut la,ter in the summer. Both 

 timothy and clover germinated well and grew vigorously in 1913. The 

 clover, however, failed to make an appearance in 1914 on either tank 5 

 or tank 9. The yields of crops for each tank are given in table 1 in the 

 appendix (page 92). 



Corresponding field plats 



A set of field plats of 1/100 acre each were laid out in the same field 

 as that from which soil was obtained for tanks 1 to 12, and on these the 

 treatments given the tank soil were repeated. The reason for conducting 

 the experiments on the field plats as well as in the lysimeter tanks was 

 to ascertain whether the effect of the lime and fertilizer appUcations 

 on the lysimeter soil corresponded to the effect on the soil in the field. 

 It was thought also that an opportunity might thus be given to compare 

 the changes that take place in the lysimeter soils with those that occur 

 under field conditions. 



QUANTITY AND RATE OF PERCOLATION 



The proportion of the rainfall that finds its way thru a soil may be 

 expected to vary with a, number of attendant conditions. Not only 



15 



