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CHAPTER XIII. 



WATER HOLDING CAPACITY OF THE SOIL. 



Among the more important questions involved in Sci- 

 entific Soil Culture, is that of so handling and preparing 

 the soil that it may carry the largest possible amount of 

 of capillary water, and at the same time let surrounding 

 conditions be such that all free or surplus water may read- 

 ily percolate down and away. 



It must be understood that a soil saturated or full 

 of water is as bad as no water at all, so far as plant growth 

 and the development of plant elements or fertility may 

 be concerned. 



It is now quite apparent that plants really do not 

 utilize or consume the amount of water once thought 

 necessary; in fact, some irrigation experiments have shown 

 that beyond a certain nominal quantity of water, more 

 water does not mean more or better crops. In these ex- 

 periments and all others every result apparently points 

 to the fact that there must be a certain quantity of water 

 in the soil together with its requisite amount of air properly 

 distributed and mingled, and when this very ideal condi- 

 tion is attained the only needful is Old Sol's persuasive 

 influence, when the development of plants and fruits will 

 be marvelously pleasing. 



It takes no argument to convince the average man 

 that there are many times when, if the soil could have had 

 just a little more available moisture, there would have 

 been one, two or three times as great a yield. To more 



