SOIL WATER: HOW IT is LOST 



173 



capillarity being at work, by water leaving the lower 

 stores and rising upwards to the surface. Not to escape 

 in this case, however, because the stone, or board, or 

 vegetable matter, by acting as a blanket, kept the moving 





A STONE MULCH 



Although many stones are present, the soil is fertile and produces profitable 

 fruit. The stones serve as a mulch 



water from rising higher and higher and up to the sur- 

 face ; and now no wind can come and take away the 

 water just brought up. 



This principle is now well established, and from it has 

 been developed the practice of moisture-saving by pro- 

 viding a layer of loose, dry soil or mulch, from two to four 

 inches deep, at the surface to serve as the blanket that 

 shall prevent active moisture-loss: in other words, to 

 check the loss by evaporation. 



