May 15, 1915 



Soil Moisture and Soluble Salts 



189 



mately 18 cm. in height. The columns were saturated with water, 

 sealed at the tops, weighed, and placed on an air-dried sandy-loam soil. 

 From time to time they were removed, weighed, the moisture content thus 

 determined, and replaced. There was no covering over the bottoms of 

 the tubes, so that the soil columns were in direct capillary contact with 

 the dry soil underneath. The amount of moisture in this undersoil 

 varied from i to 3 per cent throughout the experiment. The treatments 

 were run in quadruplicate with each soil. In addition to the treatments 

 alreadv mentioned, there were four check or no-treatment columns with 



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Fig. I. — Curve showiug the differences in the moisture content of treated and check sandy-loam soils. 



each soil, and likewise four columns to which 2 gm. of calcium carbonate, 

 at the rate of 4,000 pounds per acre surface, had been added. 



The differences in the moisture content throughout the experiment 

 between the treated soils and the check soils are shown in the accompanying 

 curves (fig. i and 2). Here the amount of water in the check soils is 

 represented by a horizontal line and the increase or decrease of water in 

 the treated soils over or under this by distance above or below these lines. 



The effect of the treatments on the moisture content or water-retaining 

 power of the soils is summarized in Table II. 



