112 DRY-FARMING 
region, which never have been disturbed by the 
Husbandman, are moist to very great depths. In 
the deserts of the Great Basin, where vegetation is 
very scanty, soil borings made almost anywhere 
will reveal the fact that moisture exists in consider- 
able quantities to the full depth of the ordinary soil 
auger, usually 10 feet. The same is true for prac- 
tically every district of the arid region. 
Such water has not come from below, for in the 
majority of cases the standing water is 50 to 500 
feet below the surface. Whitney made this obser- 
vation many years ago and reported it as a striking 
feature of agriculture in arid regions, worthy of 
serious consideration. Investigations made at the 
Utah Station have shown that undisturbed soils 
within the Great Basin frequently contain, to a 
depth of 10 feet, an amount of water equivalent to 
2 or 3 years of the rainfall which normally occurs 
in that locality. These quantities of water could 
not be found in such soils, unless, under arid condi- 
tions, water has the power to move downward to 
considerably greater depths than is usually believed 
by dry-farmers. 
In a series of irrigation experiments conducted 
at the Utah Station it was demonstrated that on 
a loam soil, within a few hours after an irrigation, 
some of the water applied had reached the eighth 
foot, or at least had increased the percentage of water 
in the eighth foot. The following statement from 
