A LITTLE LAND Ifig 



AND A LIVING 



inches annual rainfall, drought should have lit- 

 tle terror for those who have forty to fifty inches 

 per year. Always provided that we have no 

 more land than we can treat thoroughly. 



If the soil is cultivated carefully and inten- 

 sively, it will hold and store water underneath 

 the growing crop. Finely pulverizing and pack- 

 ing the seed-bed makes it retain most of the 

 moisture that falls, just as a tumbler filled with 

 fine sponge or bird-shot will retain much more 

 water than one filled with buckshot. 



The air sucks up the moisture from the earth 

 unless we prevent it by a soil blanket or " mulch " ; 

 this also readily absorbs the dew and the showers. 

 Water moves in the soil by capillary attraction 

 as in a lampwick; the more densely the soil is 

 saturated the more easily it moves upward, as 

 oil " climbs up " a wet wick faster than a dry 

 one. Put some powdered sugar on a lump of cut 

 sugar and put the cut sugar in water; the pow- 

 dered sugar will remain dry even when the lump 

 is so wet that it crumbles to pieces; this shows 

 how a mulch helps to check evaporation. 



Grain and forage crops acclimated to dry con- 



