CAPILLAKY MOVEMENT OF SOIL MOISTURE. 61 
2£ inches in width and about three-eighths of an inch in thickness. 
The wire, when placed within the soil, kept the soil particles apart 
throughout most of the spaces occupied by the pad. Four of these 
wire pads were inserted vertically within the wick, extending from 
within about one-half inch of the water in the tank up through the 
wick of the flume to the air above. These pads were placed in the 
corners of the wick and about 1 inch from any side. The flume and 
wick were then packed with soil and the experiments started. With 
the flume inclined downward at an angle of 30°, and with the light 
sandy Idaho soil, water dripped from the end of the flumes in about 
four days and continued to drip until the experiment was discon- 
tinued. This experiment was repeated, and in addition to the verti- 
cal ventilating pads, two other pads were placed, one diagonally 
across the wick and one in a horizontal position. The ends of these 
pads butted against the vertical pads and were placed about 1 
inch above the surface of the water of the tank. 
This flume gave the same results as the other flume, but a little less 
water was taken from the tank in the case of the ventilated wicks 
than in the wicks not ventilated. However, free water dripped from 
the lower end of all of these flumes. In the wick having the vertical 
and horizontal pad ventilators (so called) there was no unventilated 
space within the wick at a greater distance than IJ inches from a 
ventilator. 
In several of the flumes inclined downward, various other means of 
ventilating the wick were tried and in each case free water was still 
given off at the lower end of the flume. 
A flume inclined downward at an angle of 15° and 20 feet long was 
filled with clear Santa Ana River sand. This sand contained practi- 
cally no fine material and only traces of organic matter. Yet this 
flume, like the others described above, gave free water at the lower 
end of the flume, and within a week from the time the experiment 
was started. 
It would seem, therefore, from the evidence of the ventilated wicks 
and flumes filled with types of soil from very coarse sand to fine 
clay and all giving off free water, that the capillary siphon, as above 
styled, is perfectly established. 
It would also seem that capillary siphons occurring in nature might 
not be uncommon and that such siphons, first by capillarity alone, 
and later assisted by gravity, might cause the swamping of lands. 
Such a condition might arise if there were a stratum of soil of rather 
high capillary power and a rather impervious subsoil; if the upper 
end of such a soil arrangement were in contact with a body of water 
and the water did not have to be lifted too far by capillarity, and 
from that point the soil and subsoil had a slope downward at an angle 
