The Ground Water. 
15 
ing dry about September 1, and B a month later, October 1. The 
differences in the individual wells were the same as in 1897, ex¬ 
cept in the extent of their variation. 
§ 44. No attempt was made in 1899 to continue the study of 
the relation of the height of the water table to the amount of total 
solids contained in the water. 
§ 45. The question whether the height of the water in the 
wells corresponded with the height of the water table in the soil 
was repeatedly suggested. Investigation showed that, for all of our 
purposes, it was safe to consider them the same. 
§ 46. The matter was apparently different with the total 
solids present in the soil and well waters, especially in newly made 
holes in the soil, in which the solids were higher than in water 
from the near-by wells. This was not due to rain water falling 
directly into the wells, for they were covered to prevent this, nor to 
its running in from the surface, for the tiles which formed the lin¬ 
ing of the wells projected above the surface sufficiently to escape 
this danger. The difference in the amount of salts present in the 
soil and well waters varied more than I expected them to. In one 
case, the water table being very high, within 18 inches of the sur¬ 
face, the difference in the amount of the total solids in the water 
taken from the soil and from the well, well A, was 2 6286 parts per 
thousand. In another portion of the plot where the water table was 
not so near to the surface, and where the soil was very different, the 
difference in the amounts of the total solids was only 0.4714 parts 
per thousand. 
§ 47. It was unfortunately not feasible for us to determine 
whether the water drained into the wells from the surrounding soil, 
higher than the water plane, or not. If this took place at all it 
would seem that it did not drain from a very wide area, the radius 
of the soil affected must have been very small, or we would prob¬ 
ably not have found so great a difference in the total solids present 
in the soil water and that of the wells. We made an attempt to 
determine the distance to which an under-drain would affect the 
height of the water table, and also to determine its influence upon 
the total solids present in the ground water at different distances 
from it; but as already stated, the experiment, owing to a variety of 
causes, was abandoned. The best data that I have bearing on this 
point was afforded by a well situated about two-thirds of the way 
from the east end of my plot to an under-drain east of and lower 
than the plot. The conditions here were in every respect better 
than in the plot under observation. They had probably not been 
so unfavorable to begin with, but assuming that they were the re¬ 
sults of cultivation and drainage, the drain being about 70 feet from 
