136 Irrigation and Drainage 



little tendency for the deeper soil water to pass upward 

 by capillarity into the subsoiled earth. But quite the 

 opposite was the case with the ground not subsoiled, 

 for here the upper 3 feet had each gained more than 

 1 per cent of their dry weight of water. Express- 

 ing the movement which had taken place during the 

 6 days in pounds of water on the 36 square feet of 

 surface, we find that the surface 3 feet had gained 

 129.69 pounds, while the lower 2 feet had lost 53.52 

 pounds, leaving an absolute gain of 76.17 pounds. In 

 the case of the subsoiled ground, the surface 3 feet 

 showed a loss of 11.14 pounds, and the lower 2 feet a 

 gain of 39.38, making an absolute gain to the area of 

 only 28.24 pounds. 



In another field trial, when a piece of land was 

 subsoiled on October 22, while a strip on each side of 

 this was plowed without subsoiling, the water in the 

 soil was found in the spring to be distributed in the 

 manner indicated below : 



Subsoiled Not subsoiled * 

 in the field in the field Difference 



LBS. LBS. LBS. 



Firstfoot 15.47 17.41 1.94 



Second foot 17.61 16.31 +1.30 



Third foot 18.19 17.84 + .35 



Fourth foot 17.83 17.20 -f .63 



Total 69.10 68.76 .+. 34 



Here it will be seen that the surface foot of 

 subsoiled ground contained nearly 2 pounds less 

 water than that not subsoiled, but that the absolute 



