ORCHAIIDS. 95 



tivation. All lands do not require deep ploughing — such as 

 have an open, porous subsoil for five or six feet or more, like 

 the Missouri bottoms, some of the lands in the vicinity of 

 Kansas City, and some other sections of the State. What 

 we say in fovor of deep ploughing, we think applicable to 

 our im.mediate vicinity, where we have a tenacious subsoil 

 within a few inches of the surface There is always the same 

 amount of water in and about the earth's surface. It is either 

 in the ground or in the atmosphere, in the form of vapor. In 

 the winter, there is more in the ground than in summer, for 

 the reason that the heat of the sun evaporates it, and it exists 

 in the air in vapor. Whenever this vapor comes in contact 

 with substances colder than itself, it gives up its heat and is 

 condensed, again becoming water. We can see it in summer 

 collected upon the outside of a pitcher of water. The pitcher 

 looks as though it was sweating. No one believes that it 

 comes through the pitcher; it must come from the air. If 

 we breathe upon an axe in winter, we see it covered with frost 

 or frozen vapor. The cold comes from the axe, the water 

 from the breath. In summer, every night, when the ground 

 is not too much parched, the cold earth receives moisture from 

 the atmosphere in the form of dew. The same process takes 

 place in the soil. 



When we open the soil, and mellow it up deep, so as to 

 allow the air to circulate freely among its particles, and reach 

 the lower and cooler portions, the process of condensation takes 

 place, and moisture is abstracted ; but unless we plough deep 

 enough, so that the soil below is cooler than the air, no dew 

 will be deposited. If we take two vessels of pulverized earth, 

 one six, the other eighteen inches deep, and place them in the 

 sun, the one eighteen inches deep will be quite moist at the 

 bottom, while the other will be quite as dry as though baked 

 in an oven. The one six inches deep becomes hot, and all the 

 water is evaporated or boiled out of it, while the other is cool 

 and condenses moisture from the atmosphere. Some will say 

 there is no moisture in the soil, in a dry time, two feet below 

 the surface. That is true, unless the ground is mellow. If 

 it is hard pan, it is impossible for the air to circulate there and 



