644 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



TABLE 7.— EFFECT OF WATER TABLE UPON THE SALT CONTENT OF SOILS. 



These results show that soluble salts diffuse dowuward very slowly 

 in fine textured soils and more rapidly in sand, where the water table 

 lies at the surface and where the rate of evaporation is high. To what 

 extent this affects the quantity of soluble constituents of soils under field 

 conditions remains to be determined, yet the indications are that it is 

 a]jpreciable. The time factor and the rate of evaporation from the 

 surface must be taken into consideration. 



Where the water table stood within seven inches of the surface the 

 downward movement of the salt was again more rapid in the sand than 

 in the fine textured soils as shown by the data set forth in table 8. 



TABLE 8.- 



-EFFECT OF WATER TABLE SEVEN INCHES FROM THE SURFACE ON SALT 

 MOVEMENTS. DURATION OF EXPERi:\IENT 43 DAYS. 



CL.\Y I.O.iM 



Medium S.\nd. 



}/i inch 



3-4 inches 



(}-7 inches 



.362 

 .053 

 .067 



In the next series the water table was maintained twelve inches from 

 the surface. Under these conditions the downward translocation was 

 found to have taken place more rapidly in the clay loam than in the 

 sands. The resnlls rtlitaiiied are presented in table 9. 



