New Yoke Agricultural Experiment Station. 11 
assertion that by this means we increase the efficiency of the soil 
for water and have an increase of water, as expressed by equiva- 
lents to increased rainfall, of over ten per cent.; or yet other- 
wise expressed, the rainfall during these five months was about 1,629 
tons to the acre; the gain from cultivation was a difference, as 
measured by the conservation of water, of over 158 tons, as against 
bare soil, and 250 tons as against sod land. We may express the fact 
for the whole year by saying that as an average for the years 1883 to 
1886 inclusive (with an average rainfall of twenty-five inches), the 
average drainage from land in sod was 3.82 inches, from land left 
bare 8 . 15 inches, and from cultivated soil 10 . 03 inches, the difference 
between these figures representing the conservation of the water 
through the character of the surface. 
These propositions offer quite secure ground for the explanation of 
the effects of inter cultural tillage and for the formulating of practical 
directions for culture. We cannot doubt but that the process tends 
strongly to conserve moisture for the use of our crops, and that it may 
in itself determine whether, during seasons of drought, crops shall 
succeed or shall fail. We cannot doubt but that this process is to be 
explained through the prevention of the capillary interstices of the 
soil reaching the surface, and we must consistently believe that any 
process which tends to establish surface connection must tend toward 
the loss of water. This is a practical conclusion which can be readily 
verified. During the dry season of July let coarse manure be spaded 
into the soil in preparation of a strawberry bed, and then immediately 
set out the young strawberry plants. Unless timely rains intervene it 
will be found that these plants will perish from drought, as the coarse 
manure has broken the capillary connections and no supply of moisture 
can come from the lower areas. If, however, this land be thoroughly 
rolled with a heavy roller, by which contacts are established and con- 
nection with the lower soil furthered, capillary attraction will furnish 
a supply of water from below, and the plants will receive sufficient 
moisture for their growth. 
The rational direction, therefore, to the farmer for carrying out 
intercultural tillages must be to use an implement as a means to an 
end, i. e., the maintaining of a mulch of loose soil upon the field, the 
depth of this mulch to be determined by the character of the crop or 
by other circumstances. The timing of the process should not be 
arbitrary, but the intercultural tillage should be applied whenever 
the upper soil has regained, through the effect of rains, its connection 
with the lower soil and the capillary tubes become extended to the 
surface. 
