UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 139 
EXPERIMENTS ON CAPACITIES OF SOILS 
FOR IRRIGATION WATER. 
BY O. W. ISRAELSEN} AND F. L. WEST.? 
(Abstract). 
INTRODUCTORY. 
More information on capacities of soils for water 
is essential to its economical use. Previous work on 
subject largely under laboratory conditions, and results 
not rigorously applicable to field problems. Work done 
in field heretofore usually on cropped plats and with 
variation in time of collecting samples after irrigation, 
so that capacity is not completely and fully defined. 
Further, samples of soil for capacity observations have 
been taken after irrigations, in which the amounts of 
water applied have varied greatly and have frequently 
been insufficient fully to saturate the soil. The experi- 
ments here reported were planned to overcome these 
difficulties. 
PLAN OF EXPERIMENTS. 
Three rectangular plats on the Greenville Farm, 
North Logan, 33 feet wide and 38 feet long were sur- 
rounded by levees about 2 feet high. The plats were 
numbered A, B, and C. To Plat A, 12 surface (*)inches 
were applied; to Plat B, 24 surface inches; and to Plat 
C, 36 surface inches. 
The water was applied thru small ditches in heads 
varying from 0.1 to 0.2 cu. feet per second, measured 
over a triangular weir. As soon as water disappeared 
from surface of plats, an 8-inch straw mulch was applied 
to reduce evaporation losses to a minimum. 
Soil samples were taken from each foot section 
(*) Irrigation Engineer, Utah Agricultural Experiment Station. 
(2) Physicist,. Utah Agricultural Experiment Station. 
(®) Surface inches equivalent to acre-inches per acre. 
