VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 37 



this word is written, the press which prints it, the paper which 

 bears it, the hand which holds the page: 



(3.) The rising- water, passing upwards through the soil 

 because of the pull of the capillary attraction of the minute pores 

 or spaces between the soil particles, bathing the rootlets in a dilute 

 solution of plant food, thus affording them both food and drink. 



These several physical forms of water are chemically iden- 

 tical. They intergrade into each other, pass from one to the other 

 and back again, under the influence of the sun which draws the 

 water up and the rains which cause it to percolate downward 

 again. The standing water is, speaking broadly, the source of 

 the capillary water. If too near the surface it fills the soil pores, 

 drives out the air and drowns out plant growth other than that 

 of an aquatic character. Its main service in crop growth is as 

 a reservoir for the available soil moisture, i. e., the capillary water. 



The hygroscopic water is that moisture which adheres to 

 the soil particles and clings there indefinitely, immovably, invisi- 

 ble, inappreciable, unavailable, useless to plant life but ever pre- 

 sent. Its amount is relatively small in a soil in good moisture 

 condition, and being of no avail for practical purposes may be 

 dismissed without further consideration. 



The capillary water, however, is the true soil moisture, that 

 held within soil interstices from which plant roots feed. Its ser- 

 vice is so important in plant growth that special consideration is 

 given in this article to its nature and function. 



Soil moisture in humid regions is a derivative of the rain- 

 fall. The effectiveness of this source of supply is conditioned 

 on many factors, among which are the distribution of the rain- 

 fall, the nature of the soil on which it falls, the moisture needs 

 of the crops and the method of handling the soil. 



EJ'FECTIVENESS OF' CAPII^LARY V^ATER. 



The distribution of the rainfall is obviously beyond human 

 control. An overdry or overwet season often entails disaster. 

 Yet the moisture which crops use is not necessarily or usually 

 derived from the rains which fall during the growing season. 

 Much of it finds its origin in the ground waters fed by the rains 

 which fell during the non crop-growing season, which sink into 

 the soil depths, there to be held as in a reservoir from which more 

 or less steady and gradual drafts are made during the growing 

 season through the action of capillarity. Hence it is that while 

 the distribution of the rainfall in uncontrollable, the general me- 

 teorological characteristics of the locality being known, the pro- 

 cedure to be adopted in a given case may be adjusted thereunto. 

 Thus, for instance, the system of soil cultivation in vogue in 



