Oct. 25, 19x5 
Temperature and Capillary Moisture in Soils 
145 
various moisture contents of the different soils and the percentage of 
moisture moved from the column of soil at 20° to the column of soil at 
o° and from the column of soil at 40° to the column of soil at o°. The 
percentage of moisture moved represents the difference between the 
percentages of moisture found in the cold and the warm columns of soils, 
respectively, at the end of the experiment; at the beginning of the 
experiment the moisture content was the same in both columns of soil. 
Figure 3 represents these data in a graphical form. 
Table; II .—Movement of moisture from a warm to a cold column of soil of uniform 
moisture content 
Kind of soil. 
Percentage of moisture in soils. 
Sandy loam: 
Beginning of experiment. 
Movement from 20 0 to o° C. 
Movement from 40® to o° C. 
Heavy sandy loam: 
Beginning of experiment. 
Movement from 20° to 0° C. 
Movement from 40° to o° C. 
Silt loam: 
Beginning of experiment. 
Movement from 20° to o° C. 
Movement from 40° to o° C. 
Clyde silt loam: 
Beginning of experiment. 
Movement from 20° to o® C. 
Movement from 40° to o° C. 
day: 
Beginning of experiment. 
2.29 
. 102 
. 410 
3-86 
. 296 
1.064 
6.45 
.792 
1.97 
7-50 
. 900 
2.882 
8.48 
•530 
I- 7 I 5 
9-95 
• 520 
1.467 
10.94 
.466 
1.30 
13 - 75 
•340 
•97 
15.96 
. 100 
•30 
4.20 
. 160 
•59 
6- 52 
• 631 
i -75 
9.08 
•930 
3. 02 
10.42 
. 721 
2.40 
12.43 
• 582 
1.98 
14.02 
•491 
1.40 
16.03 
. 21 
.42 
4.29 
.138 
.471 
8.06 
• 736 
1.98 
9.76 
1.024 
2. 65 
| 
11.28 j 
1.180 
3-276 
14-441 
1.190 
3-68 
15-95 
1.10 
3-58 
17-63 
•85 
2.60 
19.30 
.48 
1-75 
21. 42 
•35 
1.02 
23-51 
.21 
-45 
7-56 
. 122 
.409 
12. si 
.46 
1.72 
14* 98 
.89 
2.07 
17-59 
.96 
2-45 
18.80 
1.07 
3-27 
21-55 
•99 
2. 82 
22. 76 
•83 
2.30 
29.98 
. 62 
1.36 
34-57 
.20 
* 5 i 
9.70 
. 248 
.672 
18.38 
. 72 
2.60 
19.29 
•99 
3*29 
20.69 
•73 
2.50 
22.98 
■ 70 
2.12 
29.88 
.681 
1.88 
Movement from 20° to o° C. 
Movement from 40® to o° C. 
The foregoing data present many important and remarkable facts. 
First of all, they show most emphatically that the a priori prediction 
regarding the thermal movement of moisture as deduced from the laws 
of surface tension and viscosity in their relation to temperature is not 
strictly realized. According to these laws, the amount of water moved 
from a warm to a cold column of soil should be the same for all moisture 
contents, provided the soil mass exerts no influence upon water; inas¬ 
much, however, as the soil does exert an adhesive force upon water, 
the thermal translocation of moisture should increase with a rise in 
water content. Instead, the percentage of water moved from a warm 
to a cold column of soil at both temperature amplitudes increases regu¬ 
larly and rapidly with an increase in moisture content in all the different 
types of soil until a certain moisture content is reached, and then it 
begins to decrease with a further rise in the percentage of water. The 
results then plot into a parabola, with a maximum point instead of a 
straight line. This maximum point of water thermal translocation is 
significant in at least two ways: (1) It is quantitatively about the same 
for all classes of soil and qualitatively the same for both amplitudes 
of temperature; and (2) it is attained at entirely different moisture 
contents in the various soils and at a comparatively low percentage 
