The Storage and Use of Soil Moisture 
9 
11. A rain of one-half inch is of no value in storing water, 
unless it conies while the surface is still fairly moist from a 
preceding rain. 
12. Water is carried into a moist soil much more rapidly 
than into a dry soil. 
13. A cultivated surface will retain more water from a rain 
than a surface not cultivated. 
14. The faster the rain falls, the greater is the difference be- 
tween the amount of water held from a rain by a cultivated sur- 
face and that by a surface not cultivated. 
15. Plowing seems to be better than disking for accumulating 
water in the soil. 
16. Disking small grain stubble to kill weeds and stir the 
surface has generally been effective in accumulating water in 
the soil. 
17. A mulch of several inches of hay or straw is more efficient 
than a soil mulch in storing water. 
18. Corn, oats, spring wheat, and barley use water from the 
first four or five feet of soil. 
19. Winter wheat uses water to a depth of six or seven feet. 
20. Corn grown in rows and cultivated does not dry the soil 
so thoroly as do the small grains. 
21. The indications are that plants obtain water from the soil 
by the growth of the plant roots into the moist soil. Very little 
water is brought to the plant roots by capillary movement. 
22. Under normally favorable conditions, growing vegetation 
is a greater factor than surface evaporation in removing water 
from soil which previously has been filled with water. 
23. Weeds are frequently the most effective agents in remov- 
ing available water from soils and in preventing the storage of 
water for the use of other plants. 
24. A mulch three inches deep is more efficient in reducing 
surface loss of water during a prolonged dry spell than a shal- 
lower mulch. 
25. Alfalfa, once well established on this type of soil, will 
obtain water from the sheet water where it is within twenty to 
thirty feet of the surface. 
26. Capillarity is an effectual agent within certain limits, 
when operating close to a supply of free water. It may be an im- 
portant factor in crop production where sheet water is close to 
