290 Bovie: NON-AVAILABLE WATER IN SOILS 
was, in every case, a transfer of water to the soil containing the 
salt solutions. Moreover, the transfer was made, by water in the 
form of vapor, across the air space. The water moved from the 
region of higher vapor pressure to the region of lower vapor pres- 
sure, and then condensed. 
No Solution added below. | Solution ners | ‘Transfer of water Direction of 
| abov in grams. transfer. 
I Dis. 0 Dis, H:0 ¥.35 | down 
2 10 per cent. Sect 2:37 up 
3 5 per = NaCl |Dis. H:0 2.4 | down 
4 ro per | 3.85 | ‘ 
5 20 per ae renal | 5-95 = 
It will be noted that, in tumbler number 1, with distilled water 
both above and below the diaphragm, there was a transfer down- 
ward. This was probably due to the weight of the column of vapor 
in the glass. This difference was further shown by the differ- 
ence in results from tumblers 2 and 4, where the condition in 
tumbler number 2 was the inverse of the condition in tumbler 
number 4, the salt solution being above the diaphragm in number 
2, and below the diaphragm in number 4. In tumbler number 2, 
the water was transferred against the pull of gravity, while in 
tumbler number 4 the transfer was with the pull of gravity. As 
expected, the amount of transfer in number 4 was greater than that 
in number 2. It is possible that water condensed in drops on the 
sides of the glass and, in some cases, ran down. This error, how- 
ever, is not very large, and could not explain the results of number 
2, nor the regular curve which all the results produce when plotted. 
Furthermore, there was no visible evidence of such a transfer. 
The amount of transfer in number 3, which had a concentration of 
soil moisture of the same magnitude as‘that of my cultures some 
time before the plants wilted, would have been sufficient to have 
raised the percentage of soil moisture to within the limits of avail- 
able water. 
CONCLUSIONS 
1. In these experiments, it has been shown that the amount of 
non-available water is not influenced by adding to pure quartz the 
quantities mentioned above of either sodium chloride or the salts 
of a full nutrient solution. 
2. Practically all plants of economic value are land plants, and 
hence, for both their water and food supply, are dependent on water 
