UPPER INDIA. DO 



The law of capillarity of soils, not yet sufficiently studied or 

 understood as far as I am aware, by which a fixed percentage 

 of moisture is retained in the soil where deeply cultivated, 

 within a varying depth from the surface, which depth is 

 governed by the nature of the soil and the state of the atmo- 

 sphere, requires some consideration. The lower parts of a 

 deeply-loosened soil being pressed together by the weight 

 of the superincumbent soil, are more able to raise water 

 by capillary attraction from the wet subsoil, and to retain 

 it, than the upper parts which are not so pressed together, 

 and are less liable to loss of moisture from evaporation than 

 the upper layers of the soil which cover and protect it. The 

 greater the power of retaining water possessed by the soil the 

 nearer the surface will any fixed percentage of water be 

 found; and it will be found nearer the surface during a 

 humid than in a dry state of the atmosphere. 



Cases are common in England where the surface of the 

 ground, which keeps perfectly dry during a continuance of 

 dry weather, becomes wet on the approach of rain, and water 

 oozes out. During the dry weather the ground is kept dry 

 by evaporation of the water, as it rises to the surface by 

 capillary attraction. On the approach of rain, the air being 

 more humid, there is less evaporation, and the surface is wet. 

 People who have not before seen it are astonished on being 

 shown the amount of moisture present in May and the earlier 

 part of June previous to the rains, in Upper India, within a 

 few inches from the surface, in soils which were deeply dug in 

 the preceding rains, which have been well pulverized, and 

 have not become caked into masses. The loosened layer of 

 surface-soil acts as a mulch, the particles of soil being more 

 widely separated, the water cannot rise by capillary attraction 

 to the surface, as it does where the particles are closer together. 



At one time I thought moisture might rise through a pul- 



