12 AGRICULTURE FOR BEGINNERS deeper in the soil rises through the soil spaces. In this way water is brought from its soil storehouse as plants need it. Of course when the underground water reaches the sur- face it evaporates. If we want to keep it for our crops, we must prepare a trap to hold it. Nature has shown us how this can be done. Pick upa plank as it lies on the ground, Under the plank the soil is wet, while the soil not covered by the same i FIG. 7. APPARATUS FOR TESTING tHE HoLDING OF WATER BY DIFFERENT SOILS plank is dry, Why? Capillarity brought the water to the sur- face, and the plank, by keeping away wind and warmth, acted as a trap to hold the moisture. Now of course a farmer can- not set a trap of planks over his fields, but he can make a trap of dry earth, and that will do just as well. When a crop like corn or cotton or potatoes is cultivated, the fine, loose dirt stirred by the cultivating-plow will make a mulch that serves to keep water in the soil in the same wav