1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 47 



surface. The lysimeters at Geneva, N. Y., had for surfaces, 

 sod, bare soil, and frequently stirred soil. The first showed 

 evaporation and transpiration combined, the second allowed 

 the capillary water to reach the surface unchecked, the third 

 had the capillary pores displaced by stirring of the surface, 

 and thus retarded the flow of capillary moisture to the sur- 

 face. For illustration we will quote the figures obtained. 

 For the month of August, 1887, with a rainfall of 3.03 

 inches, in lysimeter No. 1, the sod, there was no drainage, 

 all the water of rainfall, and more, being evaporated and 

 exhaled, a good illustration of the drying influence of crops ; 

 in lysimeter No. 2, bare soil, the drainage was .695, leaving 

 2.337 inches of the rainfall as evaporated ; in lysimeter No. 

 3, cultivated soil, the drainage was 1.055 inches, leaving of 

 the rainfall 1.977 inches to be calculated as evaporated. 

 Thus 2.337 inches, minus 1.977 inches, leaves .360 inches in 

 favor of the cultivated area. This .360 inches means 9,775 

 gallons of water per acre conserved. In 1886, under different 

 conditions of rainfall and climate, the difference between the 

 two lysimeters was even greater, indeed enormous, and offers 

 convincing proof of the efficacy of cultivation in conserving 

 moisture at a time when moisture is most needed by the 

 crops — it was 4.11 inches, or 111,607 gallons per acre ; the 

 rainfall being 2.86 inches. In 1885 the difference in amount 

 evaporated between the hardened and the stirred soil was 

 .208 inches, or 5,648 gallons per acre, with a rainfall of 5.02 

 inches. In 1884 the rainfall was 1.44 inches, the saving by 

 the process of cultivation not indicated by our apparatus, 

 as there was no percolation from either lysimeter, but in 

 September, with its 3.17 inches of rainfall, the effect of cul- 

 tivation was seen in the greater recovery of the stirred lysi- 

 meter from its extreme dryness and the saving of 6,707 

 gallons per acre. In 1883 the saving by cultivation for the 

 month of August, with 3.47 inches of rain, was 10,671 

 gallons, and in 1882, with 2.37 inches of rainfall, was 

 11,948 gallons of water per acre. I offer these figures in 

 quite full detail, as the importance of the saving is so great 

 that I would impress the fact of the saving, and its possible 

 enormous proportions, upon the minds of all, and having 

 offered the explanations and the facts, I would enforce the 



