1^2 Journal of Agricultural Research voi. x, No. 3 



(10) The effect of mulches in preventing moisture loss under both irri- 

 gation and dry-farming was noticeable several feet below the surface of 

 the ground, but the surface foot showed the greatest benefit from mulches. 

 A straw mulch proved considerably better than a 2-inch soil mulch. 



(11) Mulches on irrigated plots appear to influence the moisture content 

 of the soil to greater depths than do those under dry-land conditions. 

 A dry -farm plot kept free from weeds in 191 6 but not mulched lost very 

 little more water than one mulched 2 inches deep. A 6-inch cultivation 

 on spring-plowed and a 2 -inch cultivation on fall-plowed dry-farm land 

 seemed to conserve the moisture best. 



(12) Subsoiling 15 inches deep had little influence on the moisture; 

 spring disking was rather a distinct benefit. 



(13) That spring plowing under dry -farming conditions at Nephi con- 

 serves moisture better than fall plowing is indicated by an 8-year aver- 

 age. This difference in favor of spring plowing is shown more below the 

 first foot than in the first foot, and more in the summer and fall than in 

 the spring. 



(14) A precipitation as small as o.i inch under dry-farming conditions 

 could not be detected in moisture determinations soon after, but, when as 

 much as 0.5 inch fell within a short time, an increase in moisture was 

 noticed to a depth of 6 feet. 



(15) When freely supplied with water, a soil with a high initial per- 

 centage of moisture will come to a moisture equilibrium sooner than a 

 drier one, but if given time the drier soil will absorb a greater quantity 

 through a long distance either upward or downward than will the wet one. 



(16) The rate of moisture penetration in the first 10 days was nearly 

 twice as great with initial percentages above 15 as with 5 or below, and 

 nearly twice as rapid after a 15-inch irrigation as after a 5-inch one. 

 Under the most favorable conditions 7 feet was influenced in 10 days. 



(17) Moisture movement from soils of optimum moisture content into 

 soils of differing initial percentages varied to an extent inversely as the 

 initial content of the dry soil. At the end of six weeks, however, the 

 amount of water actually in the soils still varied directly as the initial 

 percentage. 



(18) The higher the percentage of moisture in the soil supplying the 

 water to a dry soil, the more rapidly and farther from the source of water 



did the moisture move. 



(19) Even when the source of water was an unsaturated soil, greater 



and faster movement took place when the water was moving downward 

 than upward. When the quantity of soil yielding the water was so 

 small as to make the total moisture content of both moist and dry soils 

 very low if equally distributed, the effect of gravity was not great. 



(20) Moisture from a nearly saturated soil moved a greater distance 

 into loam than into sand in 139 days and into sand farther than into 

 clay. The clay, however, contained more moisture in the layer of soil 



