CONSERVATION OF MOISTURE 209 



destroy the soil mulch, leaving pores through which evapora- 

 tion can take place readily. For that reason, cultivation 

 after a rain is necessary, if the moisture is to be conserved. 



References : 



1. 1601 : 184-202. The Conservation of Soil Moisture. 



2. 1605 : 84-85. Conservation of Moisture. 



3. Farmers' Bulletin 245 : 8-9. Effects of Tillage. 



4. Farmers' Bulletin 266. Management of Soils to Conserve 



Moisture. 



5. Reprint from Yearbook Department of Agriculture for 1908. 



Soil Mulches for Checking Evaporation, 



o. 1602 : 55-56. Saving Soil Moisture. 



6. 1603 : 10-14. The Moisture of the Soil and How it is 

 Retained. 



c. 1606 : 56-57. Conservation of Moisture. 



d. 1610:50-51. Tillage Conserves Moisture. 



e. 161 1 : 46. How to Prevent Evaporation by Mulching. 

 /. 1612 : 88-98. The Role that Tillage Plays. 



g. 1612 : 164-175. Soil Water : How it is Lost ; How it may 

 be Held. 



Experiment 73. The Effect of Mulches. 



Apparatus: Balance, set of weights, five glass chimneys 

 which are very large at the bottom, stoppers for the small 

 end of the chimneys. 



Materials: Loam, sand, sawdust, leaf mold. 



a. Stopper the small end of the chimneys, fill them nearly 

 full of loam, and wet the loam with all the water it can hold 

 without water running out of the chimneys when they are 

 inverted. Put a layer of very dry loam half an inch thick on 

 the top of the wet loam in one chimney; a similar layer of 

 sand in another chimney; sawdust in the third chimney; leaf 

 mold in a fourth. Put nothing on top of the wet loam in 

 the fifth chimney. 



