The Storage and Use of Soil Moisture 
41 
In 1908 the work was done on a piece of land which had been 
in small grain the previous year, and was being summer tilled. A 
portion of the field was left in the spring without disking; the 
other portion of the field received two diskings before the close 
of the test, when the field was plowed. It will be noted that 
there was very little difference in the moisture content of these 
two tracts up to June 13. After this date the difference becomes 
greater. During the interval when this work was being done, a 
total of ten inches of water fell. This was sufficient to replace 
in the soil not disked any water which may have been lost from 
the surface or used by weeds. The sampling was done only to 
three feet, and it may have been that more difference would have 
been seen below this depth. In 191 1 no difference in the moisture 
content was found in the first foot between disked land and land 
not disked. But where the soil had been disked there was an ac- 
cumulation of more than one inch of water in the second foot, 
while no water had penetrated into the second foot where the soil 
was not disked. During this interval a total of 5.5 inches of rain 
fell. In 1912 in the field recorded in Table 12 no benefit was 
found from disking. 
Table 13. — Effect of disking after the binder on soil moisture, 
1912. 
PER CENT MOISTURE IX THE SOIL. 
Depth 
July 27 
July 29 
August 2 
August 5 
August 12 
Inches 
1-6 
18.9 
13.3 
21.8 
17.0 
13.6 
7-12 
7.6 
6.8 
7.8 
8.4 
9.6 
s 
24 
6.0 
5.4 
5.5 
5.6 
5.1 
36 
7.2 
7.5 
7.1 
6.6 
7.0 
1-6 
17.2 
9.6 
19.0 
13.6 
6.2 
7-12 
6.8 
6.6 
6.8 
6.4 
5.7 
24 
5.8 
5.7 
5.8 
5.8 
5.6 
o 
36 
6.3 
6.2 
6.1 
6.8 
6.2 
In Table 13 are given data obtained from disking winter 
wheat stubble after the binder. In this case there is shown a 
benefit of about 7 per cent in the first 6 inches and 4 per cent in 
the second 6 inches from disking. In the portion of the field that 
was disked most of the weeds were killed. There were consider- 
able weeds on the portion not disked. These weeds doubtless 
used what moisture was available. The difference in the mois- 
