Show RETAINING MOISTURE Gd I SOIL i One of Most Important Reasons Why Cultivation Should Be Kept Up During Whole Year Moisture In soils Is ono of tho most Important and at the same time ono of the most overlooked reasons why soils should be well cultivated It has been found If n pall of water Is poured on the soil on a hot day In n few moments mo-ments tho ground will be dry where ho water was applied This Is partly due to lie fact that some of tho Water soaked Into the ground and partly because be-cause that which was absorbed by tho soil In the surface layer has returned to the air If a mulch of bay or straw Is thrown on the spot to which tho water has boon npplled the moisture will remain In tho surface layer for n long time The reason Is the air does not como In contact with the soil and the moisture cannot get up to tho nlr through the mulch BO that none of the moisture Is lost by evaporation I If It Is Impossible to apply straw or hay as a mulch and a layer of mellow I dirt In thrown over tho moist place instead In-stead of straw there Is not much evaporation because tho mellow dirt serves ns n mulch If the spot where the water was poured Is spaded up or the surface of the soil Is pulverized the same result Is obtained There Is a layer of fine dirt on top which prevents pre-vents the moisture In the lower layers of soil from rising to tho surface This Is exactly what cultivation does By pulverizing or mellowing It surface three or four Inches It eotdbllshes n dirt mulch nnd prevent the loss of moisture by evaporation If the particles of earth are packed so that there Is I but little air space between I I tween them Ills much easier for water to rise through them by what Is called capillary attraction than when tho particles of earth are farther apart I If finely packed earth Is thrown on n I wet spot In the field the moisture will I rise Into the earth and make It wet to tho very top If a quantity of crushed I rock Is thrown on the wet spot there are so many largo openings between the broken bits that tho moisture cannot can-not rise and the top layer of rocks will be dry It was this fact that led Professor Campbell and others to successfully practise dry farming in the west where the rainfall Is light By te < pIng p-ing the particles of dirt on the surface far enough apart to prevent the capillary capil-lary rise of moisture the vast amount of moisture lost by evaporation Is saved for the crops The Campbell method while It npplles primarily f to the arid and semiarid portions of tho country Is worthy of consideration by the farmers of the humid sections and should be practised more than It Is Among other things tho Campbell system Includes the frequent cultivation cultiva-tion of the surface soil whether there are weeds to kill or not At least after each rain should tho ground be thoroughly stirred The rain packs the surface making evaporation possible pos-sible As soon the ground Is dry enough to cultivate tho dirt mulch may be established and tho evaporation evapora-tion hindered In every farming section sec-tion especially In the west practically all of the moisture falls on the ground during that part of tIle year when there are no crops growing while during the period of heaviest growth there Is the least amount of rainfall The soil receives the most water when It needs It the least and the least when It needs It tho most The greater I great-er amount Is lost by evaporation when the soil receives the least In the form of rain For this reason cultivations are continued late Into the summer after the usual time of laying the corn by In the humid sections it Is the practise to lay tho corn by when It has been plowed a certain number of times no matter how small the corn may be Sometimes the plants are barely moro than knee high but the ground Is given Its final plowing and the corn Is left to make the best growth It can Generally about the first of July there comes a dashing rain nail the ground IB so packed that nearly all of the moisture Is lost by evaporation In the hot days of July and August when the corn needs mols tore most The Campbell system continues con-tinues cultivation even after the corn Is too tall to plow with the common cultivator A mulcher which Is simply sim-ply a finetoothed harrow Is drawn by one horse between each row after each shower or once every ten days if there is no shower to mellow up tho surface layer I |