Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-11-18
EXPERIMENTS DEVELOP SOME MAR
VELOUS RESULTS.
PROMISE TO BE OF VALUE.
INTERESTING INVESTIGATION OF
WESTERN SOILS.
Big Crops Grown In Regions of Very
Meager Rainfall. Owing to Soil
Conditions Which Are
Yet but ImperfectIy
Understood.

Washington Nov. 1.-THE division of
soils of the agricultural department, which
WAS established couple of years ago, is
conducting some of the most interesting eX-
periments of the department. Professor
Milton Whitney. who is in charge of the
division is engaged at present in the in
vcstigation of the climatic conditions of
moisture and temperature in their relation
to the local distribution of crops. The
work has Il scope as broad as the country.
1t will eventually embrace all the soils and
staple crops. and in its relation to the
future of the country. when crops must be
specialized under the intensified system of
agriculture which must come to American
farmers in few years. it promises TO be
cf the utmost economic and practical value.
Its practical utility will be the determina-
ton of the normal water content of the
different soils in various portions of the
country their capacity for the absorption
and retention of moisture. with the amount
of moisture required by different crops. to-
gether with methods for ascertaining the
point at which lack of moisture would en-
danger crops. and the most feasible meth
DDS of irrigation.
Thus far the investigation has covered
only truck soils in the East, tobacco soils,
and an investigation of Western soils. Some
marvellous results have already been OBJ
tained. 1t has been ascertained, for in
stance, in the matter of tobacco growing.
that tobacco wrappers, which are grown
On the light soils of Connecticut. require
but Z per cent of moisture. while filters.
which are best grown on the heavy soils of
Pennsylvania and Ohio. require 20 per cent.
The investigation of wheat and the actual
amount of water required for its maturity
will follow next. and subsequently the data
as to other croDS
The investigation of the Western Soils
made with the aid of the weather bureau
which covers lower California. the San Joa-
quin valley, and the Great PaIouse district
comprising the fertile wheat growing dis
tricts of California, Washington and Mon
tana: the Yellowstone valley, the Red river
valley, and also the Mojave and Nevada
deserts, has developed some most astound-
ing facts, and some which the department
of agriculture is not yet able to explain.
Professor Whitney says the history of these
soils will make the most remarkable chap
ter in the history of the worlds agriculture.
Although these soils, excepting the Red
river and desert districts mentioned. have
only from one-fifth to one-half of the an
nal rainfall received by the territory east
of the Mississippi river (that is, from seven
to twenty inches they seldom, if ever.
suffer from drouth. Moreover, practically
all the rainfall they do receive comes in the
fall and winter seasons. Only a slight frac-
ton falls during the summer months when
the crops are growing. Yet the crops do
not suffer.
An investigation of these far Western
soils has shown that they are largely made
up of the disintegration of the original
basaltic rock. and that there is little differ
ence between the soils and sub-soils. Il diff
. have a remarkable power for absorption of
moisture. and do not readily lose 1t by evap-
grafton, although the humidity of the at
mosphere during the growing season is
much lower than in the East. Thus, the
crops, by subsisting on the winter rains,
can stand long periods of drouth.
In the San Joaquin valley, the great grape
growing region of California the annual
rainfall is but seven inches, and from May
to September only about six-tenths of an
inch falls. yet the vines flourish through
out the season. 1t is true they are irrigated
by canals, but the moisture is absorbed and
transmitted by the soils. There is no sur
face application of water.
In Southern California the winter rainfall
is about sixteen inches; the summer rain
fall less than an inch, and without irriga-
ton tobacco and other crops grow luxuri-
antly. AT Chino, in this district, sugar
beets, which require a great amount of
moisture, grow famously. The surface soil
dries out in the summer, forming dry
crust or mulch, which seems to protect the
soil beneath.
In the districts about Merced. .Wala Wal
la. Bozeman and Pullman termed the Palouse
district, the annual rainfall varies from
ten to twenty inches. In which from one
to ten inches fall during the season of
III
derful power of the soil. to retain water
and supply it to the crops. drouth of
months is less injurious there than one of
the same number of weeks in the East
wheer the annual rainfall is about forty
inches.
In the Red river valley. the difference of
the soils about Bismarck. when contrast
ed with those about Fargo and Jamestown
where the crops depend upon timely rain
fall. renders the crops about Bismarck un-
certain. while those of Fargo and James
town seldom fail.
In the Mojave and Nevada deserts, the
annual rainfall averages about five inches
but beneath the alkali crust the soil is al
ways moist. fact which the scientists
have yet been unable to explain In
fact. little is yet known of the power of
the soils to hold water AS artesian wells
show water in all these districts from forty
to 200 feet below the surface. 1t is Consid-
cred possible that there is a slow and con-
tinuous movement of water upward from
the artesian sources, which are beyond the
influences of local climate.
This is especially believed to be true of the
desert districts. where the moisture of the
soil cannot be explained on the theory
ttat the soil could retain its moisture from
the insignificant rainfall.
BY placing electrodes in the soil in all
arin liant he f.,
inches TO twenty-five feet IL is believed in
the future that the direction and intensity
of what might be termed the water waves
Of the earth can be accurately determined
The use of the electrodes for determining
the moisture of the earth has been quite
extensively employed in the East and with
very satisfactory results. The principle
made use of is the resistance afforded by
the earth. at different depths. to the pass
age of an alternating current of electricity
II the earth is absolutely dry of course
the resistance would be too great for the
passage Of the current. As the moisture
Increases. water being a perfect conductor.
the resistance decreases. In truck farming
and garden work. where cultivation is in
tense. it is believed that these
electrodes. which require but two or three
ordinary celiS' for their operation. can be
used with great profit by those who are
at all scientific in their methods.
WILSON TALKS TO GRANGERS