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 scant.y, soil borings made ahn(jst anpyhere 

 will reveal the fact that moisture exists in consider- 

 able ciuantities 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 C(jme from below, for in the 

 majority of cases the stanthng water is 50 to 500 

 feet below the siu'face. Whitney made this obser- 

 vation many 3'ears ago and reported it as a striking 

 feature of agriculture in arid regions, worthy of 

 serious considerati(.)n. Investigations made at the 

 Utah Station ha-s'e shown that undisturbed soils 

 within the (ireat Basin freciuently contain, to a 

 depth of 10 f(>et, 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 ])()wer to move downward to 

 considerably greater dejiths than is usually believed 

 b}' dry-farmers. 



In a series of irrigati(_)n exi^eriments conducted 

 at the Utah Station it was demonstrated that on 

 a loam soil, within a few hours after an irrigation, 

 some of the water ajiplied had reached the eighth 

 foot, or at least had increased the percentage of water 

 in the eighth foot. The following statement from 



