New York Agricultural Experiment Station. 
113 
each morning-, but only the amounts absorbed during weekly periods 
are here reported: 
1st week 81.8 cubic centimeters. 9th week 32.2 cubic centimeters. 
2d " 
58.6 " 
tt 
10th " 
36.3 " 
it 
3d " 
62.2 " 
ee 
11th " 
27.9 " 
ct 
4th " 
69.6 " 
(C 
12th " 
24.5 " 
a 
5th " 
55.7 " 
13th " 
21.5 " 
a 
6th " 
57.4 " 
14th " 
20.5 " 
7th « 
57.9 " 
a 
15th " 
11.5 " 
8th " 
39.6 " 
16th " 
22.9 " 
It appears that the absorption decreased as the soil became moist, 
though the rate of decrease was by no means regular. The instru- 
ment might perhaps better have been placed so that the terra-cotta 
cylinder was at the center of the column of soil, instead of near its 
top. As it was, gravity probably assisted the absorption by attract- 
ing the water downward. After the soil had all become partially wet 
to the bottom of the jar, which occurred about the eighth week of the 
trial, the rate of absorption immediately fell off, and thereafter 
decreased more regularly. 
A NEW LYSIMETEK. 
The lysimeters in use at the station do not differ in kind from those 
employed at Kothamsted and elsewhere. But a study of their opera- 
tion has developed the fact that the data secured from them are not 
applicable to the soil in its natural condition. The soil within being 
in connection with no permanent water-table, and the acquisition of 
water by capillarity from beneath being entirely excluded, the condi- 
tions within the inclosed prisms of earth are radically different from 
those existing in the outside soil. The earth within becomes abnor- 
mally dry in times of drought, and on the advent of rain absorbs more 
water than it would if not thus isolated. The upward movement of 
the soil water in fair weather being restricted, the soluble soil constit- 
uents wash downward faster and appear in the drainage water in 
greater proportion than is the case under normal conditions. 
15 
