DRY-FARMING 



for dry-land crops, this problem should 

 be most carefully considered. For in a 

 severe drought it is always the crops on 

 gravels and coarse sands, having a poor 

 lifting power, which suffer first, since the 

 sub-soil water is with difficulty drawn up 

 to the roots of the plant. Should the 

 drought continue, the clay soils suffer 

 next, for, although they may start with 

 a much larger supply of soil moisture, yet 

 the water moves very slowly through the 

 very fine pore spaces, and the upward lift 

 cannot keep pace with the loss at the sur- 

 face due to transpiration^ and evapora- 

 tion. 



As HalP remarks, and the writer's 

 own experience bears out this statement, 

 "The soils which are least affected by 

 drought are the deep loamy sands of 

 very uniform texture, fine-grained 



1 Evaporation of water from the leaves and stems of 

 plants. 



2 "The Soil," by A. D. Hall, page 95. 



74 



