No. 98. ] : 15 
About the top of the frames an edging of hard brass, strictly de- 
fining the area, and one inch high is fastened. Hence all the rainfall 
over this area is compelled to enter the soil, and by measuring the 
amount which percolates we can account for the balance through 
evaporation. In having three lysimeters we can calculate the amount 
of water evaporated from growing sod, from a bare surface, and from 
a stirred surface respectively. An analysis of the percolated water 
enables us to estimate the amount and character of the loss of plant 
food through drainage. 
A series of soil thermometers, made by Green, and to be inserted 
into the ground alongside, at depths of one, three, six, nine, twelve and 
twenty-four inches, has been procured. We obtained these too late 
this season for use, but another year we hope to obtain the soil tem- 
perature at different depths during the season of vegetation. A 
maximum, minimum and standard thermometer, also made by Green, 
finds place upon the lawn in aslatted box constructed for the purpose, 
and gives us the air temperatures, with the extremes, for the day. 
The soil contained within the lysimeters can be described as a dark 
clay loam, moderately friable for the first eight inches; below this and 
sharply defined from it is a bed of heavy clay, dark red in color, gran- 
ular and not very tenacious, about a foot thick; below this a bed of 
clay about a foot thick, of similar color to the last, but quite compact 
and tenacious; below this four inches, of a peculiar, soapy soil; be- . 
low this last, but not included in the lysimeter boxes, was a strong 
clay hard-pan. lysimeter No. 3 contains just a little of this hard- 
pan in one corner, but the others, none of it at all. This seems the 
general description, but streaks of clay of slightly different appearance 
and working were irregularly disposed here and there through the 
soil. Angle worms had their holes throughout the whole mass, down 
even to the hard-pan. 
It was not intended to keep records of drainage until next year, in 
order to allow settling, if any (for none has yet been observed), and in 
order that the accidental impurities which might come from the acid 
used in soldering should become washed out. We have, however, 
taken the following. figures: 
Percolation from Lysimeters in Inches. 
Lysimeter. Aug. Sept. Oct. Nov. Dec. 




0 A eee 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 O01 
Der. wre id ee. 0.135 0.001 trace 0.009 “D78 
PURPME IME ies bike ke ts Or FS RIO I 284) LOL OOT MIO OT .559 
MAPA etek OL). OO L tke Olver OO 2 Lott Pea °6 OD bh 1 
We here see a marked influence in favor of the effect of stirring 
the soil upon conserving the moisture to land. No. 3, kept stirred, 
holding more water than did the others, required less of the rainfall 
for saturation and subsequent percolation. The growing sod evapo- 
rated more water than did the bare soil, and the bare soil more than 
the stirred soil. 
In connection with the lysimeters we may give the results of an 
