The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1884-10-16
DROUGHT.
BY b. Puryear, LII. D., Professor.of Chem.
istry in Richmond College.

Who feels like work, who can work,
under this dead September heat? Will
scientists explain why the same temper
ature in June and September is so much
more intolerable in the latter case? Is
the September heat urnolarized heat !?
Certain it is that a tel... are which
we can easily bear in June is grievonsly
distressing in September. Who will rise
to explain?
One would think that, having been
accustomed to the heat of Summer, we
could better bear high temperature in
September than in early Summer, but it
is not so.
But we are contending now not with
heat only, but with severe and protrac-
ted drought. The drought now upon us
is severe because the atmosphere is ex.
tremely arid. Droughts occurring at the
same seasons in different years, and with
the temperature of the atmosphere the
same, may be very unequally disastrous.
In one case the blades of corn may twist
and wilt in ten days after the drought
sets in; in another case, not for three
weeks or more-perhaps not at all.
Why? We must remember that seventy.
FIVE per cent, and frequently more, of
living vegetation is water, and that this
water is Just as much part of the plant
as the condensed solids that constitute
the vegetable skeleton. Now, water is
always passing, by evaporation, from the
leaves of plants, and the rate of evapo.
ration depends chiefly upon the hygrom-
etric condition of the atmosphere.
When the atmosphere is very dry, it
sucks up moisture from plants rapidly;
when the atmosphere is humid, evapora.
ton takes place slowly, and is arrested
altogether when the atmosphere is satu'
rated with aqueous vapor. 1t is obvious
then that evaporation may take place
very rapidly during a drought, making
the drought disastrous or very slowly,
80 making the drought comparatively
harmless. For more particular illustra-
ton, let us say that it has not rained for
two weeks, and that the atmosphere is
very dry. In such case plants lose
water by evaporation rapidly, and i'm
mediate and serious damage ensues.
But if, while no rain falls, the atmos.
phere ali the time is humid, evaporation.
will take place slowly and plants will
suffer but little, if at all. The loss of
water by evaporation from the leaves,
when the atmosphere is humid, is so
small that it is supplied, or nearly sup.
piled, by the water constantly introduced
by the roots, and hence the drought may
be much protracted before inficting seri-
GUS detriment on growing vegetation. A
drought then of given length and with
certain temperature may be disastrous.
In another year and at the same season,
another drought equally long, and &C.
companied by the same temperature,
may occur and do bat little damage. In
the former case the atmosphere is dry,
and evaporation is rapid; in the latter
the atmosphere is humid and evapora.
tion slow.
Have we any remedy against droughts ?
To no inconsiderable extent we have,
and that remedy is deep plowing.
1. Deeply plowed lands receive, when
rains are abundant, into their substance
all or nearly all the water that falls;
none or little runs off from the surface.
Such lands have therefore larger store
house of water, from which plants may
draw their supplies-crops will stand a
drought better for this reason. But the
farther the water sinks into the substance
of the soil, the smaller is the amount
which the hot sun of Summer will eVap'
crate. Twelve inches beneath the sur.
face, the soil is many degrees cooler in
Summer than the surface, and hence if
the soil be once saturated to that depth,
much less water is dissipated and lost by
solar heat. Deeply plowed lands, there
fore, not only receive into their substance
more water when rains are copious, but
hold this water with greater grip and
tenacity.
2. A deeply pulvcrized soil is permea-
Bile by the atmosphere, and the atmos-
phere, how dry soever, always contains
some aqueous vapor. ; In perfectly dry
atmosphere our bodies would shrIvei IN
very few hours into mummies; all plants
would wilt and die in day. When the
atmosphere can descend deeply into the
soil, the cool soil deprives the aqueous
vapor of heat, and so converts into water
and deposits it just where it is most
needed, about the rootlets Of plants. In
other words, in deeply plowed lands dew
is being deposited in varying quantities
all the time about the roots. Here is
another reason why crops stand droughts
better in deeply plowed lands.
8. Water is always rising from below
by the capillarity of the soil, butt it rises
slowly through hard and compact soil
with ease through deeply pulverized
soil. Hence the more deeply the soil is
plowed, the larger will be the amount of
water drawn up from below by capillary
attraction.
Can philosophy draw comfort from
drought? When the fields are dry and
parched, when the water courses are fail
ing, and our domestic animals are
pitched both for food and water, and the
farmers hopes are blasted-are there no
compensating advantages? We think
there are, and we give them for the com.
fort of the despairing and respondent.
During drought the soil is collecting
its forces and recuperating its energies
for better work in the ensuing season.
Let US see.
If from damp cellar we take a cube
of cut sugar and touch point of water,
the water will strike slowly through the
mass of sugar. But if we take o cube of
cut sugar made perfectly dry by expo
sure to the hot sun, and touch it to
water, the water in a moment flashes
through the lump. The difference with
which the two Jumps receive water is
striking and obvious. The dry lump in
a tenth of the time will receive ten times
as much water into its substance as the
moist lump. 1t is just SO with the earth IT
earth in drought; the drier the soil, the
stronger is the tendency of water to rise
from below to the surface, where it is
evaporated. But water never comes to
the surface simply as water; it must
come charged with all the soluble mate
rial which it has encountered in its
ascent to the surface; it brings with it