VERTICAL FARMING 



PART III 



Soil Moisture 

 ITS CONTROL AND CONSERVATION 



Crops must have sufficient amounts of water at the right 

 time. The greatest demand for water is often during the 

 season of least supply. The water must come from the feeding 

 zone of the roots within the soil. No phase of agriculture is of 

 more importance or worthy of more study than how to main- 

 tain an adequate supply of soil moisture. A soil may be rich 

 In plant food and not have water enough to dissolve it and carry 

 it to the plant roots. Nothing reduces the fertility of the soil 

 and the yields of farm crops in the United States annually more 

 than the lack of a proper supply of water at the season when 

 the crops demand it. The rainfall may be deficient or too 

 unevenly distributed so that the farmer is forced to store water 

 somewhere and in some way. There are few sections of the 

 country where this is not necessary ; where there is rain enough 

 during the growing season to water the crops. They must draw 

 their supplies from reservoirs that are above or below ground, 

 and the best of all is utilizing the soil itself as a reservoir. 



Soil Water as a Plant Food. All vegetable matter consists 

 largely of hydrogen and oxygen, which elements are obtained 

 from the soil water and combined with other elements in the 

 plant itself. These combinations of the water forming elements, 

 together with a small amount of carbon from the air, form by 

 far the greater weight of domestic plants even when they are 

 thoroughly dried. Tt is the water used as food that makes up 



