194 REPORT OF THE HORTICULTURIST OF THE 
supply bottle so arranged that the solution came in contact with 
the sand as fast as the latter would absorb it, but no faster. Thus 
the indicator at the bottom of the tube would reveal the first 
molecule of potash that had passed through the sand, and by 
means of a screw-clamp the supply of the solution from the bottle 
could be instantly stopped. Four trials made with this apparatus 
showed the average percentage of the water displaced by the solu- 
tion, before any of the latter had passed through the sand, to be 
93.65. , 
Many attempts were made to measure the percentage of dis- 
placement in samples of ordinary garden soil, but every one failed 
from the fact that some quality of the soil either destroyed the 
virtue of the indicator used, or else fixed the material used in the 
solution. Several trials were, however, carried out with emery 
flour with partial success. With this material, the downward 
progress of the potash solution used was readily traced by dust- 
ing the indicator along the inside of the cylinder, as already 
described. The movement was always progressive, but the solu- 
tion did not:appear to travel as rapidly as the amount added, and 
the amount of percolation would indicate. The emery flour either 
removed a part of the potash from the solution, or else fixed a 
portion of it. In none of the trials, however, have any results 
been secured that were opposed to an hypothesis of the progressive 
movement of the soil water. 
Experiments are needed to discover the influence of the size of 
the particles, the depth of the column, the rate of water supply, 
etc., upon the percentage of displacement. 
EXPERIMENTS ON CAPILLARY ACTION IN SOILS. 
The height to which water rises by capillarity in different soils, 
and its rate of progress. 
The influence of matters in solution upon the rate of capillary flow. 
THe Heiagut To WxHiIcH WaTER RISES BY CAPILLARITY IN DIFFER- 
ENT SOILS, AND ITS Rare oF PROGRESS. 
Under this subject, is described in our Report for 1887 (pp. 
103-4), an apparatus designed for measuring the extent and rate 
of the rise of water through different soils by capillary attraction. 
