The Storage and Use of Soil Moisture 
35 
The data given in Table 9 were obtained from sampling just 
before and thirty-six hours after a rain of 1.49 inches. A little 
more than one inch of water was retained in the alfalfa, but it 
was held in the upper five inches, where it was soon lost by the 
surface evaporation or used by the crop. The soil was so dry as 
shown by the first sampling that the water could penetrate but 
slowly into it. The corn plat shows an accumulation of more 
water than fell during the rain, indicating that it had caught 
some of the run-off from the sod land and roadway just above 
the field. The water acquired from the rain had penetrated into 
the soil in the cornfield to a depth of eighteen inches, thus getting 
deeply enough into the soil to escape the rapid evaporation at 
the surface. This shows how much more rapidly water will 
penetrate a moist soil than a dry soil, as well as the fact that 
the cultivated surface in the corn retained much more water 
than the dry, firm, surface in the alfalfa field. 
Table 10. — Effect of surface condition and moisture content on 
storing water, 1912. 
PER CENT MOISTURE IN THE SOIL. 
Depth 
Prairie sod 
Cane field 
Corn field 
July 25 
July 26 
Gain 
July 25 
July 26 
Gain 
July 25 
July 26 
Gain 
Feet 
1 
6.8 
12.1 
5.3 
14.8 
20.4 
5.6 
13.5 
19.2 
5.7 
2 
6.3 
. 6.3 
15.0 
16.3 
1.3 
10.5 
11.3 
.8 
3 
6.0 
6.4 
13.9 
14.9 
1.0 
13.2 
12.7 
4 
6.7 
7.5 
13.6 
13.5 
15.3 
14.8 
These data in Table 10 were obtained from three fields, which 
were sampled the day previous to and about twelve hours after 
a rain of one and one-tenth inches. The sod land held about 80 
per cent of the rain, while the cane and corn fields caught prac- 
tically all that fell. The water retained by the sod land was all 
held in the upper few inches of the soil, while in the cane and 
corn fields it penetrated more deeply into the soil. The whole 
of the first foot received water, and there is some evidence of 
water reaching the second foot during even so short an interval 
and with so small an amount. There is an indication of loss 
from the third and fourth foot-sections in the cornfield. This 
may indicate what is said sometimes to take place after a rain — 
that the water just below moves upward to the soil moistened 
