168 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



the constant drain upon supplies for the use of growing plants, and its 

 transpiration from their leaves. Experiments at the Nev/ York Station 

 with different kind.s of soils in glass tubes (If inches in diameter), the 

 lower ends of which were emersed in water, showed marked differences in 

 the height to which the water would rise by capillarity. In muck it was 

 about 23 inches in seven months, in garden soil about 45 inches in 

 the same time, in sand 20 inches and in clay 34 inches in about three 

 months, when it ceased to rise. The height to which distilled water, 

 manure water and soil extract rose in capillary tubes of small diameter 

 was also observed. Distilled water rose to 4 8-10 inches, and manure 

 extract to 4^ inches. This, it will be remembered, was when the lower 

 ends of the tubes were immersed in water. 



There come periods, however, when water remains in the soil in very 

 imperceptible quantities. This quantity varies considerably in different 

 soils, and in the same soil under different methods of cultivation. Every 

 farmer understands that a cultivated field remains moist when his pas- 

 ture and meadow lands are dried up. What mysterious influence 

 retains the water in the one, while the other dries out? The rains of 

 spring descend on both fields alike, and sink into the earth with equal 

 celerity. When each field is equally wet, one is plowed and the other is 

 not. Cultivation follows the plowing, and when extreme dry weather 

 follows, the cultivated field acquires a degree of moisture far in excess 

 of the pasture field, and sustains the crop in a most miraculous way. 

 This leads to the question; can the farmer control in any degree such an 

 amount of water in the soil as will insure a crop? If you answer yes, then 

 what law of nature is subject to his manipulations? 



CAPILLARY ACTION. 



Those who have attempted to explain this phenomenon, attribute the 

 impelling force to capillarity, which brings water from a lower level to 

 the surface soil, as oil rises in a lamp wick, or water rises in a piece of 

 cloth when one end is immersed. They say that cultivation breaks the 

 continuity of the capillary tubes, prevents evaporation, and thus compels 

 the water to accumulate in the upper layers of soil, to be fed upon by the 

 growing plants. This reasoning is too superficial. It may account for 

 Ihe movement of water in the soil when an abundant supply is present. 

 but will not satisfy intelligent inquiry when the ground has been parched 

 for a month or more. Capillary action implies saturation near the point 

 .nffected bv it. It. however, has its limitations. It is drawing too heavily 

 upon one's credulity to say that water comes from the permanent 

 supply, ten to forty feet below. The earth, in that event, would be 

 increasingly wet from the surface down to the water level. Conditions 

 of moisture, sufficient to keep corn fresh and growing, frequently occur 

 when the earth is dried out to the depth of six feet or more. No experi- 

 ments are on record, that show any movement of water in the soil by 

 capillarity in times of drouth. Indeed, the evidence is all the other 

 way. Dr. Ewald Wollney. an eminent writer on the "Physical Proper- 

 ties of the Soil." in an article published by the Department of Agricul- 

 ture last summer, distinctly states, that "capillary movement of water in 

 a soil occurs onlv when considerable water is present. It ceases when 



