166 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



SOIL AND CROP DAY. 



FRIDAY MORNING. 

 HON. CYRUS G. LUCE IN THE CHAIR. 



WATER IN THE SOIL. 



HON. A. C. GLIDDEN, PAW PAW. 



The thinking farmer comes frequently upon problems, in the course of 

 the season's labor, which are too deep for ready solving. The law 

 of nature seems, in some instances, to have been suspended, and chance 

 takes charge. Some of the mysteries are too high in the heavens for us 

 to investigate, and some are hidden in the earth. The clouds are capri- 

 cious. They discharge a flood upon us at times, and again they hold the 

 water in suspension and sweep across the face of the heavens, leaving us 

 parched and thirsty for rain. The faithful, enduring, economical soil, 

 drinks up the surplus flood, yet holds a reserve of moisture for the use 

 of plants, and incidentally for our benefit- It is upon this value, and the 

 performance of water in the soil, that I shall address you. 



The several kinds of soils have a different capacity for holding water 

 according as they approach or recede from what we are accustomed to 

 call fertile soils; that is, if a soil is poor and sandy, it will not hold in 

 suspension so large a quantity as when it is filled with humus or 

 decayed vegetable matter. It has been found that a clay soil will hold 50 

 per cent of its weight of water. A loam soil 60 per cent, a humus soil 

 70 per cent, while a poor sandy soil will hold but 45 per cent. About 

 two-thirds of the annual precipitation (rain and melted snow) is held in 

 the upper five feet of earth. If there was no percolation through it to 

 the water level below, and no evaporation, the soil could hold water 

 enough to grow maximum crops every year. Very much of the waste of 

 water is in evaporation, and is insensible to us. A part goes down to 

 become the reservoir for wells and springs, and the remainder — much the 

 larger part — enters into the circulation of the roots, is carried upward 

 and evaporated by the leaves. 



WHAT WATER DOES. 



The oflflce of water in plant growth is the most important factor in the 

 economy of farming. We may spread fertility, and mix it with the soil, 

 in exact proportions for the sustenance and growth of crops, but if water 

 is not present in sufiicient quantity to dissolve the nutrient elements, the 

 plant starves for want of such support, as certainly as the animal starves, 



