movement is slow, and in lumpy ground where air spaces exist, it is 

 materially retarded or entirely stopped. Hence, we emphasize the 

 necessity of carefully pulverizing the surface before plowing, the seed- 

 bed after plowing, and subsequently making it compact. It must be 

 remembered that trash not worked into the seed-bed before plowing 

 will form an insulation on the bottom of the furrow that effectually 

 stops the upward movement of capillary water. Too often a crop is lost 

 after the moisture in the seed-bed has been consumed which would 

 have been saved had the contact between the furrow slice and the 

 bottom of the furrow been made compact. 



Hygroscopic Moisture 



Hygroscopic moisture is the vapor that exists in the air. Surface 

 soils, if they are of good tilth and rich in humus, absorb air and with the 

 air moisture. While the amount is not sufficient to produce crops, it is 

 of material benefit in localities where heavy dews and fogs prevail. 

 Hygroscopic moisture is sufficient to maintain plant life in deserts. 



Summer-Fallowing 



Summer-fallowing, or summer culture, as it is often called, is another 

 method of storing and conserving moisture. In some localities the 

 annual rainfall is insufficient to grow crops each year; hence, the neces- 

 sity of cropping the land alternate years. The plan that has been suc- 

 cessfully adopted in California, Wyoming, Utah, Western Kansas and 

 Nebraska, is as follows: 



As soon as the frost is out of the ground in the spring, land that has 

 been plowed the previous year is disced until the soil is loose and porous 

 enough to absorb any rains that may occur. After rains and as soon as 

 a crust forms, the harrow is used for the purpose of forming a mulch 

 blanket and to destroy weeds. This operation is continued until early 

 fall, when the ground is again plowed, disced, and if lumpy and loose, 

 made compact by using a sub-surface packer. Wheat is then drilled 

 and the surface made compact by using the culti-packer. To 

 summer-fallow and not cultivate the land is of no benefit, but, on the 

 contrary, a detriment if weeds are permitted to grow, for they not only 

 consume as much water and plant food as a crop, but in the absence of 

 a mulch blanket, moisture escapes. 



Widtsoe has the following to say in regard to summer-fallowing: 



"King has shown that fallowing the soil one year carried over per 

 square foot in the upper four feet 9.38 pounds of water more than was 

 found in a cropped soil in a parallel experiment, and, moreover, the 

 beneficial effect of this water was felt for a whole succeeding season." 



Widtsoe states: "Water storage is manifestly impossible when crops 

 are growing upon the soil. A healthy crop of sage brush, sunflowers or 

 other weeds consumes as much water as a first-cla.ss stand of corn. 



