No. 6. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 163 



PAPERS READ AND ADDRESSES DELIVERED 

 AT THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE FARM- 

 ERS NORMAL INS.ITUTE, HELD AT ALLEN- 

 TOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, JUNE, 4-7, 1907. 



THE ^VASTE AND SAVING OF THE WATER IN THE SOIL. 



By Mr. H. R. Hilton, Port Allegany. Pa. 



After listeuiiig to the addresses of welcome that have preceded 

 miue, I feel a little nervous in coming before you to tell my story 

 in my awkward way. Mr. Seeds did not have any difficulty in con- 

 vincing you that he is an Irishman; you have his own word for it, 

 and then you have his wit. Now, I think I have just as good evidence 

 that I also am an Irishman, and that is my brogue. I trust I may 

 be able to make you understand nie tonight in spite of it. 



The State of ^^'isconsin has worked out the total amount of water 

 required h\ the vaiious crops that are grown on a farm, and find, for 

 instance, that corn requires about three hundred pounds of water 

 to one pound of dry matter; oats, five hundred and twenty, and 

 clover, four hundred and fifty. Corn, according to this formula, 

 requires three hundred pounds of water to produce one pound of dry 

 matter. 



The record of the weather bureau at Harrisburg for the past 

 nineteen years averages tliirty-seven inches per year, and eighteen 

 inckd-s for the five growing months, April to August. It is now 

 generally conceded that one-half of the rainfall can be utilized by 

 the growing crops, and one-half is wasted by evaporation, run off 

 during excessive showers and by drainage beyond the reacb of 

 plant roots. We can alw'ays depend on four inches of water being 

 held in the top three feet of soil and available for plants on the first 

 of April in every year. Add to this one-half the rainfall of the five 

 growing months, viz., nine inches, and w^e have thirteen inches of 

 water available each average year to develop plant growth. 



The average^ yield of corn in Pennsylvania is estimated at thirty- 

 two bushels per acre. This, on the basis of the Wisconsin formula, 

 would require about five inches of water to produce, and would mean 

 that less than one-third of the summer rainfall had been utilized. 

 If one-half the summer rainfall and one-half that in store April first 

 had been used by the growing corn, there would have been water 

 enough available to make thp average corn crop yield seventy bushels 

 per acre. This reveals a wide margin for improvement, and points 

 out where additional fond suT)plies may be obtained for the 85,- 

 000,000 mouths to be fed in the United States, without any increase 



