THE DIVERSIFIED FARM 



In diversified farming by irrigation lies the salvation of agriculture 



The Age wants to brighten the pages of its Diversified Farm department and with this purpose in 

 view it requests its readers everywhere to send in photographs and pictures of fields, orchards and 

 farm homes; prize-taking horses, cattle, sheep or hogs. Also sketches or plans for convenient and 

 commodious barns, hen houses, corncribs, etc. Sketches of labor- saving devices, such as ditch clean- 

 ers and watering troughs. A good illustration of a windmill irrigation plant is always interesting. 

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HOW CULTIVATION PRESERVES THE 

 MOISTURE. 



BY F. C. BARKER, OF NEW MEXICO. 



THAT cultivation of the upper crust of 

 the soil tends to prevent evaporation 

 of the moisture below, is a fact that every 

 practical farmer is well aware of. It is 

 daily being proved in actual practice, but 

 the scientific theory upon which this phe- 

 nomenon is based is little understood. 

 Men will bell you it is so, but why, they 

 do not understand. 



Now, it is well known that the soil is 

 composed of innumerable and infinitely 

 small particles. When the soil is dry each 

 little particle is surrounded by a vacuum 

 or air space. Whenever the particles come 

 in contact with moisture, they have the 

 power of attracting that moisture and of 

 surrounding themselves with a thin film 

 of water. The particles next to the water 

 first draw the water around themselves, 

 then the dry particles next to them in turn 

 attract it, and so a continuous stream is 

 set up, much in the same way that a wick 

 of a lamp draws up the oil. This goes on 

 until the whole body of soil is saturated, 

 but as soon as the water reaches the parti- 

 cles on the surface of the soil, this water 

 is evaporated, and the supply below is 

 again drawn upon, until the water stored 

 below is so exhausted, or left at such a 

 depth, that the distance overcomes the 

 power of attraction and the soil becomes 

 completely dry. This is the process which 

 goes on in uncultivated soil. 



The object of cultivation is to break up 

 this attraction, usually called capillary at- 

 traction, in the upper crust and so prevent 

 the moisture from being brought to the 

 surface and evaporated. To understand 

 how this is done, one must take into ac- 

 count another scientific fact, and that is, 



that if these little particles in the soil be 

 widely separated from each other they lose 

 their power of attraction. Now, when the 

 top crust of the soil is loosened and re- 

 duced to a fine tilth, these particles lie 

 less closely together and do not attract 

 moisture from below. The moisture now 

 rises as high as the upper tilth, and there 

 remains to a much longer extent than in 

 the case of untilled soil, for owing to the 

 blanket or mulch of loose soil on the top, 

 the soil below the surface is much less ex- 

 posed to the action of evaporation. 



Some of our farmers here are unwilling 

 to accept the above theory, alleging that 

 adobe or clay soil, that has never been 

 cultivated for years, will have more moist- 

 ure below than cultivated soil. If this be 

 so, the fact does not clash with the theory 

 of particle attraction. On such soil the 

 top surface has been packed down so 

 closely that the surface is practically pud- 

 dled, in which case the attractive power of 

 the particles is destroyed. It is the same 

 as though the surface were covered with a 

 large rock or a board, whereby the evap- 

 oration were suspended. Every one knows 

 that moisture may almost always be found 

 under a large rock. The idea is to cover 

 the soil with something that will suspend 

 the attractive power of the soil-particles 

 and retard evaporation. 



Herein lies the whole secret of why land 

 should be cultivated after each irrigation 

 or heavy rainfall, if the farmer wishes to 

 conserve the moisture in the soil. There 

 is also another and very important reason 

 why crops should be cultivated after each 

 irrigation. The roots of plants require 

 air quite as much as they do water, and 

 when the soil becomes packed or plastered 

 down by irrigation the roots do not get a 

 full supply of air, unless this surface crust 

 is broken up. 



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