128 
Drought o/1870 and 
5. From permanent meadow land, in July, 1870, after the 
removal of the crop ; mean of three plots differently manured. 
Table XII. — Summary of Percentages of Moisture in Soils and Subsoils from 
different Fields, and under different conditions as to Season, Cropping, &c. 
Depths 
of 
Samples. 
EXPERIMKNTAL WHEAT FlELD. 
Bakn Field. 
Samples collected, 
June 27th and 28th, 1870. 
Perm A Kent 
Meadow Lakd. 
Samples collected, 
July, 1868; 
Mean of 
Plots 3, 2, and 8a. 
Samples collected, 
Jan. Bill and 7th, 
1869 ; Mean of 
Plots 3, 2, and 8a. 
Samples coUectod, 
July 25th and 26th, 
1870; Mean of 
Plots 3, 9, and U. 
Uncropped 
Laud. 
Land Growing 
Barley. 
First 9 ins. 
6-2.3 
27-17 
20-36 
11-91 
11-99 
Second 9 , , 
11-19 
22-70 
29-53 
19-32 
11-77 
Third 9 ,, 
15-02 
25-27 
34-84 
22-83 
17-11 
Fourth 9 , , 
16-13 
25-65 
34-32 
25-09 
19 -.32 
Mean 36 ,, 
12-14 
25-19 
29-76 
19-79 
15-05 
Fifth 9 ,, 
31-31 
26-98 
20-67 
Sixth 9 , , 
33-55 
26-38 
21-49 
Mean 54 , , 
30-65 
22-09 
17-06 
The special application of the detailed results having been 
already fully considered, attention must be confined here to the 
more general indications only of the foregoing summary. 
In the first place, it should be observed that all three fields 
have a subsoil of reddish yellow clay, resting upon chalk, at a 
varying depth, but of not many feet from the surface. All, 
therefore, have good natural drainage ; and it is very seldom that 
any water collects in the furrows, and then only for a very few 
hours. The experimental wheat field is, however, pipe-drained 
at a depth of about 30 inches, and at a distance of about 25 feet 
from drain to drain. 
It is of interest to observe that there is no wide difference in 
the amount of water retained at corresponding depths in the 
experimental wheat-field in July 1868, when the crop was 
nearly at maturity, and in the permanent meadow land in July 
1870, after the removal of the hay crop. The percentages are, 
however, rather lower in the drained land ; which, at the time, 
had probably supported a higher average amount of produce also. 
Towards the end of June 1870, the undrained arable land, 
which then carried a crop of growing barley, representing per- 
haps from 1 J to 2 tons of dry substance fixed, retained only about 
the same amount of water near the surface as the meadow land 
in July 1868 ; but, lower down, it held considerably more than 
either the drained wheat land in July 1868, or the undrained 
meadow land in July 1870. 
