DRY-FARMING 



for dry-land crops, this problem shoiild 

 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 Uf t 

 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 



