A NOTE ON THE CAPILLARY RISE OF WATER 



IN S0IL8. 



By BERNARD A. KEEN. 



{Goldsmiths' Company's Soil Physicist, Rothamsted Experimental Station.) 



Very diverse views are expressed on the height to which water can rise 

 in soils under the forces of capillarity. Alway and MacDoIe* in the course 

 of a brief historical review, point out that these estimates range from 

 two or three feet only, to as much as two or three kilometres, although 

 the majority do not exceed 200 feet. Most of the investigators who 

 advance a high value for the capillary rise are careful to point out that 

 in all probability the movement of water in this case would be exceed- 

 ingly slow, owing to the excessive friction in the minute capillary spaces. 

 Actual experiments on the rise of water in tubes of compacted soil result 

 in low values, which are in all probability exceeded in the field. Waring- 

 ton in his book Physical Properties of Soil gives a typical table showing 

 the results of Loughridge'' for Californian soils. The figures are repro- 

 duced here in Table I. They show, as would be expected, the rapid 



Table I. 



Rise of water infonr Californian Soils. 



* The clay, silt and sand differ in dimensions from the fractions of the same name in 

 British analyses. 



••> Joiini. Agric. Mes. 9 (1917), p. 27. 



I' Californian E.i:])t. Sla. Rep. (1892-4), p. 91. 



