THE WATER OF SOILS. 



259 



utmost the endurance of all growing 1 plants. Some of the 

 details of this investigation have been given above (p. 214) in 

 connection with the question of moisture requirements of 

 crops. Loughridge l also investigated the moisture condi- 

 tions in adjacent orchards differently treated in cultivation. 

 In one of these cases two orchards of apricots were separated 

 only by a lane, and the soil identical ; but one owner had omit- 

 ted cultivation, while the other had cultivated to an extra depth 

 in view of the dry season apparently impending. The results 

 are best shown by the plates below, showing representative 

 trees and the annual growth made by each. The table an- 

 nexed shows the differences in the moisture-content of the two 

 fields to the depth of six feet, in July : 



MOISTURE IN CULTIVATED AND UNCULTIVATED LAND. 



The difference of 244 tons per acre of ground shown by the 

 analyses is quite sufficient to account for the observed differ- 

 ence in the cultural result. The cause of this difference was 

 that in the uncultivated field there was a compacted surface- 

 layer of several inches in thickness, which forcibly abstracted 

 the moisture from the substrata and evaporated it from its 

 surface ; while the loose surface soil on the cultivated ground 

 was unable to take any moisture from the denser subsoil. 



The cultural results were that on the cultivated ground the 

 trees made about three feet of annual growth, and the fruit 



l Rep. Calif. Expt. Sta. for 1897-98, p. 65. 



