132 CAMPBELL'S SOIL CULTURE MANUAL 



it will not take up water as it should, but if only the sur- 

 face is dry and beneath is found comparatively moist 

 soil, a condition which prevails where there is the right 

 cultivation then this soil will take up the moisture. 

 The only problem then left is to save this moisture. 



A DIFFERENCE IN THE SOILS. 



In Farmers' Bulletin 257, of the Department of Ag- 

 riculture, we find Professor Whitney relating an incident 

 which nicely illustrates the difference between the semi- 

 arid country and the humid regions. He said: 



"Some years ago I saw some interesting soils in Cal- 

 ifornia. In some of the valleys they have soils that will 

 produce a crop without any rainfall during the period of 

 growth. At a point near Los Angeles, which I visited 

 one September, they had a tobacco field which had been 

 planted in April or May and had produced a crop which had 

 been harvested. A sucker crop had been allowed to grow, 

 and in September they were cutting the sucker crop, 

 which had made a fair growth and was then in a very 

 flourishing condition. The tobacco had had no rain since 

 it was planted, but had been cultivated throughout the 

 season as we do our crops in the east. With my hands 

 I could scrape off the surface and get down to moist soil. 

 The wells of that district showed the table water was 

 forty feet below the surface. Such an occurrence appears 

 a very remarkable fact to us here in the east, where we 

 suffer if the rain does not come within two or three weeks. 



"In trying to find out the reason for those peculiar 

 conditions in some of the western soils, the fact presented 

 itself that in those localities they have a very dry air, a 

 very hot climate, and usually very strong winds that 

 dry out the surface rapidly. They have about 18 or 20 

 inches of rain during the winter. After the rains stop in 



