122 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The results obtained were as follows: — 



TABLE 2. 

 Giving throe capillary lifts produced by the soil mentioned above. 



Comparsion of tlte new mellwd with the old method. 



As far as we are aware, the greatest capillary lift measured by the 

 old method is that of Loughridge.* He used quartz tailings, 016-005 

 m.m. diameter, and obtained a capillary lift of 10 '17 feet, the time re- 

 quired being about 18 months. 



By the method described above we have been able to measure a 

 capillary lift of 30-1 feet and the time required was 20 hours. That 

 is, this method has enabled us to measure a capillary lift approximately 

 three times as great as the maximum lift observed by the old method 

 and the time required was reduced from months to hours. 



Advantages of the neiv method. 



As stated above the advantages of the new method are: — 



(1) The moisture moves through a wet soil. 



(2) The moisture passes through a very short column of the wet 

 soil and thus friction is reduced to a minimum. 



(3) The time required to make a measurement is reduced from 

 months to hours. 



(4) The final measurement is a fairly accurate measure of the 

 capillary lift of the soil. 



Part II. 



The Capillary Lift Produced by the Soil Constituents. 



The soil constituents were obtained from different soils of the 

 Macdonald College farm by the regular operations used in the mechanical 

 analysis of soils. ___^__^ 



*Hilgard, "Soils" p. 203. ~~ 



