The First Book of Farming

f Soil

ER AND MEANS OF

it for proper ventilation and so check the growth of the roots of the plant. Now i

the clay soil took in the water very slowly and that on a field of clay soil part of the rain water

izing the soil with the tillage tools and putting organi

apt to be lost by leaching or percolation. This we found could be checked b

nspire it, as this process is called. We learned also that the amount transpired is very great. Now water that is pumped up and transpired by the cr

is the way weeds do their greatest injury to crops during dry weather. The

t out of this soil? That at the surface of the soil evaporated or was changed into vapor and passed into the air. Then water from below the surface was pumped up by capillary force to take its place just as the water was pumped up in t

ay be lost b

e check t

covering the soil with some mater

till it is as hard as the unplowed or unspaded soil. Leave one of them in this condition; from two of them remove an inch or two of soil and replace it in the case of one with clean, dry, coarse sand, and in the case of the other with chaff or straw cut into half-inch lengths. Stir the soil i

from jars of prepare

t 5.5 oz. equal to ab

aw-lost 2 oz. equal to

sand-lost 0 oz. equal

d soil-lost 2.5 oz., equal

and 4 lose as muc

pumped to the surface by capillary force and wa

water could not climb on it to the surface, and the air circulated in the sand so slowly that there was not sufficient evaporation to affect scales weighing to one-quarter ounce. No. 4 lost less than No. 1 because, as in the case of the sand, the water could not climb rapidly to the surface on the

to the surface, or check the power of the soil to pump the water to the surface by making it loose on top. This loose soil is called a soil mul

OW THE EFFECT

7 days 5.5 ozs. water, e

traw, lost in 7 days 2 ozs. wa

sand, lost in 7 days 0 ozs. w

mulch, lost in 7 days 2.5 ozs. wat