Show AVE WATER WITH THE PLOW by bureau of irrigation investigations show value of thorough cultivation cultivation should follow irrigation ia soon sooil its as the condition of the soil boll makes tha work possible rated land loses by evaporation two ar three times as much as cultivated land and the loss decreasing with ith tile tho depth of the soll eoll mulch the quantities of both tosses losses and savings were demonstrated conclusively lit in a series cries of bt experiments undertaken by the bureau of irrigation invest investigations lations in n an orange grovo grove in riverside california higi eight t water rater jacketed tanks two feet wide and four feet deep each filled filled with about eleven hundred pounds of at the sandy loam that made up the orchard solli were burled buried in a trench tour four feet apart after their exact eight vad moisture content had been ascertained measured quantities of water were applied to the poll eoll in the auks anks by means of a furrow four laches inches deep across the top of each tank in hi imitation of orchard practice the arranger arrangement rient of at the soil layers and the irrigation and cultivation methods fo followed follows field conditions as aa closely as ae possible in the first experiment water ater to cover tho the surface of tho tha tanks twelve inches deep was gradually applied to tho the eight sheet iron vessels five days after the application or of the water when tho the top soil had dried out sufficiently to io be worked four of the tanks tanka were cultivated and four were left uncultivated during in the first five days of tho the experiment before bt fora cultivation began the evaporation losses determined by frequent weighing of tho the tanks amounted to fifteen per cent of the total quantity of water added to both sets seta of tanks tanka from the sixth to the eleventh day the value of cultivation its as a moisture saver became apparent on the ninth day tor for instance the cultivated tanks showed an average loss rf water amounting to 0 o less than a pound and a quarter each whereas the soil sell left uncultivated lost three pounds per tank after the last weighing on the eleventh day it was found ali that since cultivation began four of tho the tanks had lost 57 per cent of the total amount of water applied in the weighing of the tour four uncultivated tanks the was loss of water was found to teach reach per cent |