July i6. 1917 Movement and Distribution of Moisture in Soil 117 



Effect of Initial Percentage and Gravity 



Briggs and Lapham (5) found the rise of moisture was 4.5 times greater 



in a moist than in a dry soil, while Krakov (23) showed the rapidity and 



height of capillary rise to be inversely as the soil moisture. WoUny (35) 



declares that capillary rise and percolation of water in the soil declines 



in rate as the water content of the soil diminishes. Krakov (23), as 



well as Alway and Clark (2), has shown that moisture moves more 



rapidly through the soil when assisted by gravity than when moving 



upward against it. 



FIELD STUDIES 



CROPPED AND FALLOW SOILS 

 Under Irrigation- 



This experiment was conducted from 1913 to 191 5, inclusive, on the 

 Greenville Experiment I^'arm at North Logan, Utah. The plots used for 

 the experiment were 61 G to 73 G, each of which was subdivided into 6 

 parts receiving different treatments. As divided, there were 36 subplots 

 cropped to corn and 42 uncropped, each containing the location and 

 manuring treatments divided as much alike as possible. ^^airly well 

 rotted cow and horse manure was applied to the manured plots early in 

 the spring, and later it was disked and plowed in. 



The quantity of irrigation water varied from none to 40 inches and was 

 applied from wooden flumes as follows: 



For cropped plots receiving 5 inches, 2K inches each at beginning of tasseling and 

 roasting-ear stage. 



For plots receiving 10 inches, 5 inches each at the above stages. 



For plots receiving 20 inches, 5 inches each when the plants were 12 inches high, at 

 the beginning of tassel, at bloom, and at roasting-ear stage. 



For plots receiving 30 inches, 5 inches each when plants were 12 inches high, 10 

 days later, at beginning of tassel, at bloom, at roasting-ear stage, and 10 days later. 



For plots receiving 40 inches, applications began when plants were 12 inches high, 

 and 5 inches were applied each week until all the water was added. The fallow 

 plots were irrigated at the same times as the cropped. 



A detailed description of the treatment of these plots may be had in Bulletin 133 

 of the Utah Experiment Station. 



In this experiment the plots were sampled in the fall to compare the 

 effect of the corn and fallow on the final distribution of moisture. The 

 samples were taken in i-foot sections with a soil auger, each plot being 

 sampled in three places. These were then mixed into a composite sample. \ 



Figure i gives the average distribution of moisture to 10 feet in depth 

 for all fallow and cropped plots for the 3-year period. From this figure 

 it will be seen that the fallow has considerably more moisture in the 

 upper 7 feet than the cropped, particularly in the sixth and seventh feet, 



1 For a detailed study of the methods used in sampling, the reader is referred to Bulletin iis of the 

 Utah Experiment Station (32). 



