12 
Bulletin 58. 
was hot and the wilting may have been dependent upon this as 
much as upon a lack of water in the soil, but on August 13, it is re¬ 
marked that the crop needs water and on the 17th the condition of 
the ground is designated as dry, though we had had in the mean¬ 
time, August 4 and 5, a rain fall of 0.78 inch. The ground had 
been kept as mellow as possible and free from weeds, having re¬ 
ceived, in all, five cultivatings and five hoeings. 
§ 16. There was no need of irrigating the plot during the sea¬ 
son of 1899, though we gave it a thorough soaking from August 31 
to September 2, not because the crop needed it, but for the purpose 
of puddling the ground and of studying the changes which took 
place in the water by its contact with the soil. 
§ 17. The chief cause of our abundance of water was the fact 
that we received a sub-irrigation July 1 to 7, coming from the west¬ 
ern part of the farm. There is a drain immediately west of my 
plot which should have taken ofi the greater part of this underflow, 
but it did not prevent my plot being filled nearly to the surface with 
water. The water plane being raised to within 18 inches of the 
surface, as was proven, not only by the water in the wells, but also 
by several holes dug in order to verify this observation. This de¬ 
velopment was something entirely new. I knew that the stratum 
of gravel underlying the plot was filled with water and that there 
was probably a flow to the eastward through it. I thought that it 
came from a more distant source, believing that we were fully pro¬ 
tected against sub-irrigation of this sort by a ditch constructed to 
utilize the seepage water gathered for a mile or more to the west¬ 
ward of us, and further, by the drain alluded to. I believe that 
these two really gather all the water that, under ordinary con¬ 
ditions, drains from the higher land to the westward of us, but in 
this instance an unusual supply of water enabled the Farm Depart¬ 
ment to run water night and day for a week, with the result that 
the water found its way down into and filled up my lower lying 
land. The wetness of the land interfered with the cultivation of 
the crop, but the mechanical condition of the soil was greatly im¬ 
proved over that of the preceding seasons, so that the cultivation 
was much easier than in 1897 and ’98. 
§ 18. The ground was not disturbed after the irrigation of 
September 2, but it was allowed to bake and harden as much as it 
would. This crop was cultivated twice, hoed twice and irrigated 
once. 
In 1898 the crop was irrigated but once, because we could 
not get water to irrigate with. This single irrigation was only a 
light one, applied July 8 to 10, and a part by accident on July 14. 
Subsequently the ground became very hard, in spite of our efforts 
to keep it mellow. In 1899 we sought to pack and allow it to be- 
