Soils, their formation, properties, composition, and relations to climate and plant growth in the humid and arid regions

[97] Rep. Calif. Expt. Sta. for 1897-98, p. 65.

The difference of 244 tons per acre of ground shown by the analyses is quite sufficient to account for the observed difference in the cultural result. The cause of this difference was that in the uncultivated field there was a compacted surface-layer of several inches in thickness, which forcibly abstracted the moisture from the substrata and evaporated it from its surface; while the loose surface soil on the cultivated ground was unable to take any moisture from the denser subsoil.

FIGS. 48, 49.—Apricot Trees, Creek Bench Land, at Niles, Cal.]

The cultural results were that on the cultivated ground the trees made about three feet of annual growth, and the fruit was of good, normal size; while the trees in the uncultivated ground made barely three inches of growth, and the fruit was stunted and wholly unsaleable. It may be added that when, instructed by the season’s experience, the owner of the “uncultivated” orchard cultivated deeply the following season, his trees showed as good growth and fruit as his neighbor’s.

EVAPORATION THROUGH THE ROOTS AND LEAVES OF PLANTS.

Undesirable as is the evaporation from the surface of the soil, under all but exceptional conditions the evaporation from the leaves of plants is one of the essential functions of vegetable development. Not only because water serves as the vehicle of the plant-food absorbed by the roots and to be organized by and redistributed from the leaves, and the aeration occurring in the latter must of necessity result in a certain degree of evaporation; but largely because the conversion of liquid water into vapor serves to prevent an injurious rise of temperature in the leaves under the influence of hot sunshine and dry air. It is undoubtedly for the latter purpose that the greater part of the enormous amount of water required, as above stated (chap. 11) for the production of one part of dry substance, is actually used. When sufficient water to supply the required evaporation through the leaves cannot be brought up from the soil, the plant begins to wilt; or in the case of some plants with very thin and soft leaves the blade normally begins to droop during the hottest hours of the day; thus escaping excessive exposure to the sun’s rays, and recovering their turgor later in the afternoon.

The amount of water actually evaporated from orchard trees has unfortunately not been directly determined, the investigations made in this respect having borne mainly upon forest trees. The Austrian Forest Experiment Station made a series of elaborate investigations on this subject in 1878, and the following data (quoted from the Report of the U. S. Dep’t of Agriculture for 1889) convey some idea of the results.

It was found that the surface-areas of the leaves do not give reliable results, but that these depend very largely upon the thickness (mass) of the leaves. The dry weight of the latter was found, as in the case of field crops, to correspond most nearly to the observations made directly. It was thus found that e. g. birch and linden transpired during their annual period of vegetation from 600 to 700 pounds of water per pound of dry leaves; oaks 200 to 300, while the figures for ash, beech and maple were in between. On the other hand the conifers—spruce, fir and pine—ranged, under the same conditions, from 30 to 70 pounds of water only. In another year, these figures were increased for deciduous trees to from 500 to 1000, the conifers, 75 to 200 pounds. This great variability in different seasons, together with other elements of uncertainty, render these figures only roughly approximate; but it will be noted that the figures for deciduous trees are in general of the same order as those given above for field crops. Assuming the evaporation for citrus trees to be approximately the same as for the European evergreen oak (Q. cerris) viz. 500 pounds per pound of dry matter, and taking the weighings made by Loughridge of the leaves of a 15-year-old orange tree at Riverside as a basis (40 pounds of dry leaves), the water evaporated by each such tree would be about 20,000 pounds per year, or about 1000 tons per acre of 100 trees. This is equivalent to about 9 acre-inches of rainfall, out of the 35 inches commonly given.

Since different plants evaporate very different amounts of water during a given time, according to their leaf-surface and the number and size of their stomates, the maintenance of the equilibrium between the soil-supply and the evaporation of the leaf-surface requires correspondingly varying moisture-conditions in the soil. Therefore desert plants, with their elaborate structural provisions against leaf-evaporation, will develop normally, and without wilting, under conditions which in the case of most culture plants would result in severe injury or death. Since diminution of leaf-surface will in all cases diminish evaporation, the heroic measure of cutting back the twigs and branches of shrubs and trees in seasons of severe drought is sometimes resorted to in order to save their life. In Nature this diminution of leaf-surface may be observed in many cases of desert plants, whose “fugacious” leaves are developed during the rainy season, in winter and early spring; dropping off so soon as the dry season begins, and leaving only the green surface of twigs, stems or spines to perform the functions of the leaves.

The shading of the ground by leafy vegetation will, of course, greatly diminish and sometimes suppress evaporation from the soil-surface; thus very nearly fulfilling the same conditions referred to above (chap. 7, page 111) in discussing the effect of natural vegetation in rendering tillage unnecessary; the beating of rains, and the formation of surface crusts, being alike prevented. This fact is of essential importance in contributing to the welfare of crops sown broadcast, where subsequent cultivation is impracticable.

_Weeds Waste Moisture._—The injurious effects of weedy growth among culture plants are in most cases due quite as much to the appropriation of moisture that should have gone to the crop, as to the abstraction of plant-food, to which the injury is generally attributed. This is much more obvious in the arid region, where during the dry summers every pound of moisture counts, than where summer rains obscure this influence. It has led orchardists in California almost to an excess of clean culture, resulting in the burning-out of the humus from the bare surface-soil during the long, hot summers, and an injurious compacting impossible to remedy by the most careful tillage. It thus happens that green-manuring, the natural remedy for this evil, cannot safely be done there with summer crops, but must be accomplished with winter crops, such as can be turned under before the dry season begins. The same objection holds against the growing of summer crops between the orchard-rows.

DISTRIBUTION OF MOISTURE IN THE SOIL AS AFFECTED BY VEGETATION.

The investigations of Wollny and others have long shown quantitatively what common experience has taught the farmer, viz., that a field in crops or grass is always drier within the soil-mass penetrated by the roots than is a cultivated field bare of crops, unless perhaps when heavily crusted on the surface. The depletion of moisture caused by grass sward is the most easily observed because of the shallowness of the root-system; and this is one cause at least why grass sward does not occur naturally in the arid region, and when planted cannot be maintained without irrigation repeated at short intervals. Deeper-rooted plants of course deplete the soil at different and varying levels; and where surface roots are few or absent it may readily happen that the surface soil is moister than the subsoil.

This was very strikingly shown by the investigations of Ototzky in the South-Russian steppes, in comparing both the moisture contents and the depth of bottom water as between forest land and the open plains. On the steppe near Chipoff, Government of Voronej, he found the ground water at from 3 to 5 meters (10-16 feet) depth; under the forest in the same region and in identical underground formations, the water level stood at 15 meters. In the Black Forest near Cherson, the water is found at about 15 feet beneath the surface; under the steppe and in cultivated ground it stood at 10 feet. At the same time the forest soil was moister in the upper two feet than the soil of the steppe, where surface evaporation (partly through shallow plant-roots, partly direct) was greater than under the shadow of the forest; under which, moreover, there were few shallow rooted plants to draw upon the moisture of the surface soil.

The great evaporation from forests is a matter demonstrated by actual measurement; hence it is not surprising that certain shallow-rooted trees should serve for the reclamation of wet ground, as has been demonstrated on the large scale, e. g., in the use of the eucalyptus in the Pontine Marshes of Italy, and of the maritime pine in the Landes of western France. Thus the sanitation of swampy districts through tree-planting has become one of the established measures in their settlement. But this refers only to the evaporation from the trees themselves; for in the shade of the forest, a free water-surface is found to evaporate on the average only one-third as much as in open ground. Of course there must be a correspondingly great difference in the amounts of evaporation from the soil-surfaces in the respective areas.

The great draft made by the Eucalyptus globulus upon soil-moisture has been also abundantly shown in California, where on account of its rapid growth this tree has been largely used for windbreaks. It was found that the trees deplete the fields of moisture for from twenty to thirty feet on either side, so as to materially reduce crops within that limit. For this reason the pine and cypress has of late found greater acceptance for this purpose.

_Mulching._—Covering the soil with straw or similar loose materials to prevent waste of moisture is a common garden practice everywhere, although not usually applicable on the large scale. It may readily however, be carried to excess, in preventing not only evaporation but also the warming of the soil which is so needful to the thrifty growth of plants. It must not therefore be done too early in the season; and after cold rains it sometimes becomes necessary to remove the mulch in order to allow the ground to become properly warmed. Mulching in early spring is often used to retard blooming of trees where spring frosts are feared.

In the arid region, sanding of the surface is sometimes resorted to for the prevention of the evaporation which brings alkali salts to the surface. But the necessity of repeating this dressing annually unless cultivation can be omitted, restricts the use of this expedient to narrow limits.

The sanding of the surface of cranberry plantations in swamps or bogs in the northern parts of the humid region doubtless owes its efficacy largely, if not chiefly, to the retention of moisture, while at the same time it prevents the consolidation of the surface, so as to render tillage unnecessary.