116 
BULLETIN 1059, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 
average weight was about 100 gram-. Especially was it noted that 
surface samples which were nearly air-dry when taken absorbed 
very little moisture in these short periods. 
Finally, from November 28, 1918, to March 29, 1919, a test was 
made involving samples from nearly all of the regular soil -sampling 
points at the Fremont Experiment Station, as well as a miscellane- 
ous lot exemplifying various peculiar character.-. Two bell jars 
were employed, a small dish of sodium hydrate solution being placed 
in each. At the end of the four-month period these solutions had 
not absorbed vapor to quite the same extent in the two jars, and in 
neither case was the total absorption equal to the losses from all of 
the soils. However, for practical purposes the two containers were 
DTIC AND CAPILLARY RELATIONS 
?0M DIFFERENT DEPTHS AT COMMON POINT 
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iu equilibrium with each other, the osmotic pressures of the solu- 
- being 21.5 and 20.2 atmospheres, respectively. 
At the outset each sample of soil was given 10 per cent of moisture 
above its air-dry weight, so that the moisture was available in liquid 
form and the various soils were not radically unlike in their initial 
conditions. While it is not certain that the time allowed was suffi- 
cient to establish equilibrium, it is to be noted that the changes in 
moisture content varied from losses of about 3 per cent to gains of 
fractional percentages and. in one case, where there was much raw 
humus, a gain of 15 per cent. 
The result.-, as shown in small part in Table 6 and diagram.- 8, 9, 
and 10, are very elucidating. These diagram- are prepared some- 
