A Study or Codorado Wheat 
23 
not very vigorous and did not occupy the ground with their roots, 
a fact which may have favored nitrification. There was certainly 
no nitrates washed out of any portion of this soil by irrigating 
water; on the other hand the lateral movement of the irrigating 
water does not seem to have been sufficient to account for any ac¬ 
cumulation by lateral secretion. If this actually took place to any 
extent at all, it would have been at the margins of the space, which 
we avoided, and took the sample as near the center of the dry area 
as possible. 
j 
MOISTURE AND TOTAL NITROGEN IN SAMPLES TAKEN WITHIN THE PLOTS 
1 JULY, 1913. 
Section 1700 Section 1800 Section 1900 
Total Total Total 
Depth Moisture Nitrogen Moisture Nitrogen Moisture Nitrogen 
Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent 
0 to G inches. 14.03 0.1278 12.79 0.1115 12.51 0.1251 
7 to 12 inches. 14.36 0.1156 14.63 0.1115 14.49 0.1088 
13 to 24 inches.■. 14.95 0.0721 15.16 0.0626 15.22 0.0490 
25 to 36 inches. 14.95 0.0340 15.29 0.0313 16.07 0.0231 
37 to 48 inches. 15.67 0.0258 15.84 0.0286 15.75 0.0161 
0 to 6 inches. 12.57 0.1292 12.24 0.1265 15.06 0.1251 
7 to 12 inches. 14.43 0.1047 14.34 0.1006 16.47 0.1006 
13 to 24 inches. 14.39 0.0598 14.63 0.0598 15.76 0.0544 
25 to 36 inches. 14.87 0.0313 14.75 0.0380 15.85 0.0218 
37 to 48 inches. 17.77 0.0286 16.27 0.0286 16.33 0.0190 
If we consider the water contained in the soil on 29 April and 
27 June, about fourteen days after irrigation, we observe that the 
irrigated land contains the greater percentages of moisture at all 
depths down to the twelfth foot. These percentages are comparable 
as both sets of samples were taken from fallow ground. But if we 
can compare the amounts of nitric nitrogen present, we observe 
great irregularities in distribution and scarcely any comparison at 
all in the quantities present. There is one thing very apparent and 
that is the extent to which the application of one acre-foot of water 
lias removed the nitrates. The moisture present in the April sam¬ 
ples was due to a series of light rains insufficient to effect leaching 
of the ground, whereas an acre-foot of water applied under our 
conditions affected a very perceptible amount of leaching. I do not 
know the rate of percolation, but when this amount of water is ap¬ 
plied, the surface portions of our soil become very soft, so soft 
that one will sink into it half-leg deep. There is no doubt but this 
mass of water passes downward rapidly, as the amount present ex¬ 
ceeds the capacity of the soil that it successively occupies to retain 
it. AVe can compare the results in another way; we can compare 
the percentages of water found for the four-foot samples taken 
7 June, five days before irrigation, and the top four feet of the sam¬ 
ples taken 27 June, about fourteen days after the irrigating had been 
