The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1900-07-23

Capillary action. or movement of water
in the soil is due to the tension of soil
particles. II the particles are coarse, the
action is weak, says the Tennessee En-
pertinent Station. II the particles are fine
and the soil compact, the capillary action
is strong and a large amount of water
will be held unless lost by evaporation.
Moisture may be retained in the soil by
subsoiling, blowing. narrowing, Guilt
waiting, muichng, rolling. and by the adj
dition OF humus or decayed vegetable
matter. Subsoling increases the depth Of
ciayey and compact soils and allows more
water to enter them instead of running
off on the surface. Subsoiling is thus
important means of preventing washing,
and ID also enables the roots to penetrate
deeper. thus increasing the feeding area
Both spring and fall subsoiling are of ad-
vantage on stiff, heavy 3and.
Flowing is an important factor in saving
soil moisture. The reason why lands wash
so seriously is that the blowing is too
shallow and it is frequently done when
the soil is in an unfit condition. The pillow
should be run as deep as possible, being
set slightly lower each year until the top
soil is eight or ten deep. The best piow-
ing is that which leaves the soil in the
finest state of division. Cloddy or lumpy
land cannot hold large amount of water;
therefore it is important to plow when
the land is neither 100 wet nor too dry.
Land should be narrowed after blowing
before the clods become hard and difficult
to crush, and the surface made as fine cs
possible. Frequent narrowing of lands
already planted will check the loss of
water. Orchards, especially those CON
tanning young trees, will be greatly bene-
fitted by narrowing at brief intervals until
midsummer. The disk harrow is bes,
adapted to clayey soils The disks should
be set at such an angle that the entire
surface will be titled As a saver of soil
moisture, however the disk harrow is con-
sldered inferior to the Acme or spring
tooth harroWs. If the land has been put
in proper condition early in the season
spike tooth or smoothing harrow will be
all that is needed during the summer.
The frequent cultivation of hoed crops
is necessary to prevent The rapid evapor-
alton of moisture. If the ground is suf-
hciently loose an implement with MANY
small teeth should be used, as such a cul-
uvator leaves a finer soil mulch than one
with large teeth. A soil mulch inches
ep is more effective in saving moisture
than one of less depth. The land should
tie titled after every rain. whether the
fall is heavy or light. The object of cult
walton is to destroy WEEDS and TO prevent
the formation of a surface crust. This
crust If allowed to remain unbroken ia
Vors the CAPT larry movement CT water to
the surface of the ground where the
moisture eVaporates. Use the cultiVator
several times between rains, if the inter
walls are long
Rolling is an advantage in preventing the
loss of moisture from su... not compact
enough to hold much water. The com
pacing of such soils by repeated rolling
decreases the amount of water that pass
es through them and beyond the reach OF
roots. When thu object of rolling is 10
save the so moisture. a tooth harr5w
should be used if possible after rolling,
SO as to form layer of loose soil on the
surface; otherwise rolling will decrease
the soil moisture. The roller should be
used with caution on clayey lands The
purpose of using the roller after seed ng
during dry weather is to compact the
soil, thus increasing the capillary action,
which carries the necessary amount of
moisture to the seeds to cause garmina-
ton. The roller is sometimes used after
the plants are up. which of course favors
the rise Of water to the young roots The
addit on of humus to soils deficient In or
ganic ma erial will greatly increase their
capacity for holding water. This may be
supple by using vegetable mold TO cover
crops, rotations. green manures and. sta
BILE manures, says a bulletin Of the Ten
nessee experime mt station.