Conserving Soil Moisture. 



195 



Table showing the water content of soi7, Sept. 19 t under and 

 between rows of potatoes hilled and left flat when laid by. 



228. Subsoiling to Save Soil Moisture. The deep plowing 

 or stirring of the soil, to which this name has been applied, 

 has the effect of making a larger per cent, of the rainfall 

 available in producing crops, but it will never have the 

 wide applicability that is possible for surface tillage. In 

 sub-humid climates where the subsoils are less liable to be 

 puddled and where there is the greatest need of economy 

 this method of conserving soil moisture will find! its widest 

 usefulness. 



A piece of ground when subsoiled, as represented in 

 Fig. 60 and given, with an adjacent area, a like amount 

 of water, and protected from surface evaporation, was 

 found to have retained not only the water given it but to 

 have gained an additional supply through capillarity from 

 below- while the ground not subsoiled lost a large per 

 cent, of that [^iven to it through percolation and capillary 



