I7O SOILS 



and water freely enters, the ridges and hollows occa- 

 sioned by the plowing operation, acting together, serve as 

 tiny basins for catching and holding all little excesses, 

 until the greater part of the contribution can be got into 

 the soil. The entire turned portion of the soil further 

 serves as a sponge for the time being, until the water just 

 received can be given to the interspaces of the soil below. 

 In North Carolina a test showed 142 tons per acre of 

 water more in a fall-plowed soil, than for similar soil 

 plowed late in the spring. 



The importance of this increase is readily seen : more 

 water is stored in the soil and more is available for the 

 crop later in the season at a time when the demands will 

 be great and urgent. Similar results were obtained in 

 Xew Hampshire. Out of fourteen determinations made, 

 fall plowings showed larger water content in every case, 

 the range being from 72 to 264 tons per acre above like 

 soils that were plowed during the latter part of May. 



A most frequent and conspicuous observation, espe- 

 cially during periods of drought, is this : Corn or cotton 

 or other cultivated crop, day after day, week after week, 

 contends against extreme heat and drought, without rain 

 or prospect of rain ; despairs not, though the soil is dry 

 and hot ; grows on and increases in size and strength, al- 

 though but little, to pass at last beyond danger because 

 rain has come, because the period of trial is over, because 

 the earth is replenished again. Why is this so, when all 

 about are fields of similar crops starved, ruined, if not 

 dead? Simply because many months before water found 

 admission into the soil, and there remained until the 

 crucial test was made water was demanded the call 

 was given, which, heeded, preserved the crop, and added 

 fresh laurels to the crop and to its keeper. 



It is stated that often if but a half inch more of water 



