464 IRRIGATION FARMING. 



separate areas. This pracflice is in full accord with 

 the old eastern idea of our boyhood days which pro- 

 claimed that a wet fall on meadow or pasture always 

 predicted a fine growth of grass and a good hay crop 

 the following summer. 



Winter Evaporation. — It is a fac5l well under- 

 stood by observers that evaporation from the surface 

 goes on at all times and under all conditions of tem- 

 perature, but is naturally least rapid during the colder 

 months of the year, and especially when the ground is 

 frozen. Water put on the ground late in the fall and 

 during the winter will sink deeper and deeper into the 

 subsoil before its downward course is stopped by sur- 

 face evaporation. While ordinarily in the summer- 

 time an inch of water will wet down from four to six 

 inches of soil, in the winter this same amount of water 

 will sink to nearly thrice this depth, or from twelve to 

 eighteen inches, and will remain there until withdrawn 

 by solar capillarity in the warm days of early summer. 

 It is quite pracflical to have the ground wet down five 

 or six feet, so it will freeze as deep as possible. If it 

 is thoroughly wet, it is surprising how deep the frost 

 will penetrate. If this land is plowed in proper con- 

 dition scarcely a clod will be found, nor will a roller or 

 float have to be used. Very little water will be re- 

 quired during the following season. Crops on such 

 land will withstand any amount of dry wind, and will 

 be doubly produdlive in comparison with crops grown 

 entirely by summer irrigation. If the subsoil is thor- 

 oughly wet the succeeding season will indeed be a rare 

 one that will not produce a crop of barley, oats, or wheat 

 by the ordinary rains of spring. 



