The Topeka state journal., 1897-11-18
Relations of the Two in COnnec-
tiOn With Crops
Is the Subject of Investigation
-, -: by Division of Soils.
WESTERN ADVANTAGE
1t is Discovered That Crops
West of the Mississippi
Can Be Grown With Less M0is-
ture Than in the East.

Washington. Nov. 1s.-The division of
soils of the agricultural department,
which was established a couple of years
ago. is conducting some of the most in
teresting experiments of the department.
Prof. Milton Whitney, who is in charge
of the division, is engaged at present in
the investigation of the climatic condi-
tions of moisture and temperature in their
relation to the local distribution of crops.
The work has a scope as broad as the
country. 1t will eventually embrace all
the soils and staple crops. and in it's re-
lation to the future of the country, when
crops must be specialized under the in
tensiIed system of agriculture, which
must come to our farmers in a few years
it promises to be of the utmost economic
and practical value. Its practical utility
will be the determination of the normal
water contents of the different soils in
various portions of the country, their ca
pacity for the absorption and retention of
moisture, with the amount of moisture
required by different crops, together with
methods for ascertaining the point at
which lack of moisture would endanger
crops and the most feasible methods 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 obtained. It has been ascertafned.
for instance, in the matter of tobacco
growing, that tobacco wrappers which are
grown the light soils of Connecticut
require but per cent of moisture, while
the filters, which are best grown on the
heavy soils of Pennsylvania and Ohio. re-
quire 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
crops, which covers Lower California the
San Joaquin valley and the great Pa
louise district, comprising the fertile
wheat growing districts of California
Washington and Montana, the Yellow
stone valley. the Red River valley and
also the Mojave and Nevada deserts has
developed the most astounding facts and
some which the department of agricul-
ture is not yet able to explain.
Prof Whitney says the history of these
soils viii make the most remarkable chap
ter in the history of worlds agriculture
Although these soils. excepting the Red
river and desert districts have only from
one-fffth to one-half of the annual rain
fall received by the territory east of the
Mississippi river Chat is, from seven to
twenty inches), they seldom. if ever, suf-
fer from drought. Moreover. practically
all the rainfall they do receive comes in
the fall and winter seasons. Only a
slight fraction 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 disinteg-
ration of the original basaltic rock, and
that there is but little difference between
the soils and subsotls. a difference very
marked in the east. They have a remark
able power for absorption of moisture
and do not readily lose it by evaporation
although the humidity of the atmosphere
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 drought.
In the San Joaquin valley, the great
grape growing region of California, the
annual rainfall is but seven inches, and
from May until September only about
sixteenth of inch falls, yet the vines
flourish through the season. 1t is true
they are irrigated by canals, but the
moisture is absorbed and transmitted by
the soils. There is no surface application
of water.
In southern California the winter rain
fall is about sixteen inches, the summer
rainfall less than one inch. and without
irrigation tobacco and other crops grow
luxuriantly. At Chino, in this district,
{
of moisture, grow famously. The surface
soil dries out in the summer, forming
dry crust or mulch, which seems to pro-
tect the soil beneath. In the districts
about Merced Walla Walla, Boseman 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 the growing
crops, yet. owing to the wonderful power
t,,f+ +1,a soil fn in nd To w
it to the crops, a drought of months is
less injurious there than one of the same
number of weeks in the east, where the
| annual rainfall is about forty inches.
In the Mojave and Nevada deserts the
annual rainfall averages about five inches.
but beneath the alkali crusts the soil is
always moist, a fact which the scientists
have as 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 two hundred feet below the sur
! face. it is considered possible that there
is slow and continuous 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 that the soil could retain
| its moisture from the insignificant rain
/ fall BY placing electrodes in the soil
| in all these places at various depths from
a few inches to 25 feet. it is believed that
| in the future 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 determin-
ing the moisture of the earth has been
| 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 electrici-
| ty If the earth is absolutely dry, of