SOIL MOISTURE AND DRY FARMING 97 



Such water serves the further purpose of facilitat- 

 ing the passage of water downward to lower levels where 

 it enters the soil. Water penetrates a moist soil more 

 quickly than a dry one, hence the maintenance of a sup- 

 ply of water in the subsoil tends to deepen the area of 

 such reserve supply. Experiment has shown that in 

 well managed soils in dry areas the moisture in the soil 

 in the spring is considerably more than it was in the au- 

 tumn, but this result did not follow when the surface 

 soil was hard. Subsoil moisture is an important regu- 

 lator of crop growth, hence the great wisdom of trying 

 to increase the supply of the same. Injury from water 

 carried up from lower depths occurs only when sub- 

 stances hurtful to plant life, as alkali, are present in the 

 subsoil water. 



To get water down into the subsoil is one of the first 

 considerations that should engage the attention of the 

 farmer, and to increase the storage of the same should 

 be an object of constant solicitude. The following are 

 chief among the methods by which it may be accom- 

 plished : (1) by opening up the soil deeply when break- 

 ing it; (2) by keeping it fallow the first season; (3) by 

 maintaining the surface soil in that condition which will 

 admit of easy access of water when it falls ; (4) by grow- 

 ing alfalfa in the rotation every few years; (5) by not 

 cropping too freely with small grains ; (6) by preventing 

 water from running away over the surface. 



Opening up the soil deeply at the first is one of the 

 most effective methods of getting water down into the 

 subsoil. Usually this is not easily done and it is costly. 

 The more deeply the soil is stirred when breaking it or 

 by subsoiling, the more deeply will water penetrate in 

 the average season. But if the farmer crops the land the 

 first season, tbe crop takes from it in its growth mois- 

 ture that would otherwise have gone down into the sub- 

 soil. Those who can .afford it, therefore, should allow 



