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Sum total of possible duration of sunshine, in hours, from January 1 up to any day of the year-Continued.

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January 21-31

11

304.2

299.2

293.4

280.8 273.6

265.8

February 1-10

10

408.4

402.2 395.1

379.6 370.7

361.1

February 11-20

10

516.3

483.3

473.2

462.3

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287.5 387.8 509.2 501.1 492.7 8 605.7 598.2 589.5 580.5 570.5 720.7 712.8 703.7 694.2 683.7 672.4 839.8 831.8 822.6 813.0 802.4 791.0 11 975.4 967.6 958.7 949.3 938.9 927.8 915.9 10 1,103.2 1,095.9 1,087.5 1,078.7 1,062.0 10 1,234.9 1,228.4 1,220.9 1,213.0 1,204.3 10 1,370.4 1,365.0 1,358.7 1,352.0 1,344.6 1,336.8 1,328.5 10 1,509.3 1,505.3 1,500.5 1,495.4 1,489.7 1,483.7 1,477.4 10 1,651.3 1,648.9 1,645.9 1,642.6 1,639.0 1,635.2 1,631.3 11 1,810.3 1,809.9 1,809.0 1,808.0 1,807.0 1,805.9 1,805.1 10 1,956.9 1,958.4 1,959.7 1,961.0 1,962.5 1,964. 1 1,966. 3 10 2,104.4 2,107.9 2, 111.4 2,115.1 2,119.2 2,123.7 2,129.1 10 2,251.9 2, 257.4 2, 263.2 2,269.3 2,276.0 2,283.4 2,292.0 10 2,398.5 2,406.0 2,413.9 2,422.3 2,431.5 2,441.7 2,453.4 10 2,543.4 2,552.7 2,564.6 2,573.2 2,584.7 2,597.4 2,611.9 11 2,700.1 2,711.2 2,725.1 2,735.8 2,7.9.6 2,764.7 2,782.0 10 2,839.3 2,851.7 2,867.1

2,879.4 2,894.9 2,911.9 2,931.3
3,018.8 3,035.7 3,054.2 3,075.2
3,167.0 3,185.0 3,204.8 3,227.2

10 2,975.0 2,988.5 3,005. 1
11 3,120.2 3,134.7 3, 152.3
10 3, 248.0 3,263.0 3,281.1 3,296.5 3,315.1 3,335.6 3,358.8
10 3,371.8 3,387.0 3,405.3 3, 421.0 3,439.9 3,460.7 3,484.2
10 3,491.5 3,506.6 3,524.9 3,540.5 3,559.3 3,570.0 3,603.4
10 3,607.1 3,621.8 3,639.7 3,654.9 3,673.3 3,693.5 3,716.4
10 3,718.7 3,732.7 3,749.9 3, 764.4 3,782.0 3,801.3 3,823.2
11 3,837.2 3,850.2 3,866.3 3,879.6 3,895.9 3,913.7 3,934.2
10 3,940.9 3,952.7 3,967.5 3,979.3 3, 994.1
10 4,041.4 4,051.7 4,064.8 4,074.9 4,087.9 4, 101.9
10 4, 139.2 4, 147.8 4, 159.0 4,167.1 4, 178.0 4, 189.6 4,203.5
10 4,235.0 4, 241.8 4, 251.0 4,256.9 4,265.3 4, 274.4 4,285.5
10 4,329.8 4,334.7 4,341.7 4,345.3 4,351.2 4,357.6 4,365.7
11 4, 434.0 4,436.8 4, 441.4 4,442.5 4,445.7 4,449.0 4,453.8

11.1

11.0

11.0

10.9

4,010.2 4,028.9

10.8

4,118.3

11.2 10.8 4,451.5 4,454.3 4, 457.4 4,461.5 4,465.7 4,470.8 4,476.7

Chapter VI.

MOISTURE OF THE SOIL.

IN GENERAL.

The soil receives its water supply either by natural rainfall or by irrigation. The plant in successive generations of cultivation adapts itself to the ordinary supply of water, but in order to perpetuate its kind it must have sufficient during the growing season to serve it as a medium for extracting from the soil and air the nutritious substances needed by it for its own development. The water really available to the plant is principally that which is left in the soil close to the roots after the surface drainage has carried off a large per cent of the original rainfall and after the evaporation by the dry wind has taken 20 per cent of the remainder from the surface soil and after a further large per cent of the remainder has by percolation or seepage slowly settled down beyond the reach of the roots of the plant. Thus it happens that the roots rarely have left for their use 20 per cent of the original rainfall, and this is the so-called "useful remainder." Generally this remainder is best expressed as a percentage of what the soil would hold were it completely saturated. Therefore its absolute quantity will vary with the character of different soils

EVAPORATION FROM THE SURFACE OF FRESH WATER.

MONTSOURIS DATA FROM DESCROIX.

An approximate idea of the relation between the velocity of the wind, its temperature, and its dryness, on the one hand, and its power to evaporate water on the other, may be obtained by collating the data given by Descroix in his article on "The climatology of Paris," in the Montsouris Annuaire, 1890, page 121. From the mass of data given by him I select the averages taken according to the direction of the wind, or wind roses, for the three summer months June, July, and August, 1889, as these are the months during which crops are liable to suffer the most severely from droughts and dry winds. I give them in the following table:

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We see that the driest winds, or those whose relative humidity is small, such as the north and east winds, give a large evaporation, and that the velocity and temperature of the west winds, which are a little less than those of the southwest winds, does not compensate for the dryness, which latter enables them to evaporate a little less than the southwest winds.

By multiplying the average daily evaporation by the number of days we obtain the total evaporation from the saturated paper of the Piche instrument. This exceeds the total rainfall, but we are not to infer that the evaporation from ground and leaves must also necessarily exceed the rainfall, although this is generally true for the sum

mer season.

BOSTON DATA FROM E. J. FITZGERALD.

The evaporation of the water from leaves and from the ground depends upon the temperature, wind, and humidity of the air. It is a rather complex result; if the above-mentioned elements remain constant for any time at the surface of the mass of water the evaporation from that surface will be closely represented by the following formula which is due to Fitzgerald, of Boston,

E=0.0166 (P-p) (1+ W),

where W is the velocity of the wind in miles per hour; P the tension of vapor in inches of mercury corresponding to the temperature of the water; p is the tension of vapor corresponding to the dew point in the free air; E is the evaporation expressed in inches of depth of water evaporated per hour under atmospheric pressure between 29 and 31 inches of the barometer.

The evaporation from leaves and soils is usually less than that from water about in the proportion in which the soil approximates its

Chapter VI.

MOISTURE OF THE SOIL.

IN GENERAL.

The soil receives its water supply either by natural rainfall or by irrigation. The plant in successive generations of cultivation adapts itself to the ordinary supply of water, but in order to perpetuate its kind it must have sufficient during the growing season to serve it as a medium for extracting from the soil and air the nutritious substances needed by it for its own development. The water really available to the plant is principally that which is left in the soil close to the roots after the surface drainage has carried off a large per cent of the original rainfall and after the evaporation by the dry wind has taken 20 per cent of the remainder from the surface soil and after a further large per cent of the remainder has by percolation or seepage slowly settled down beyond the reach of the roots of the plant. Thus it happens that the roots rarely have left for their use 20 per cent of the original rainfall, and this is the so-called "useful remainder." Generally this remainder is best expressed as a percentage of what the soil would hold were it completely saturated. Therefore its absolute quantity will vary with the character of different soils

EVAPORATION FROM THE SURFACE OF FRESH WATER.

MONTSOURIS DATA FROM DESCROIX.

An approximate idea of the relation between the velocity of the wind, its temperature, and its dryness, on the one hand, and its power to evaporate water on the other, may be obtained by collating the data given by Descroix in his article on "The climatology of Paris," in the Montsouris Annuaire, 1890, page 121. From the mass of data given by him I select the averages taken according to the direction of the wind, or wind roses, for the three summer months June, July, and August, 1889, as these are the months during which crops are liable to suffer the most severely from droughts and dry winds. I give them in the following table:

p. 235.) He finds that with the temperature of the air 84° F. and a relative humidity 50 per cent the evaporation varies with the velocity of the wind at the surface of the moist disk as in the following paragraph:

INFLUENCE OF THE WIND ON EVAPORATION.

At 5 miles an hour the evaporation is 2.2 times that in a calm; at 10 miles, 3.8 times; at 15 miles, 4.9 times; at 20 miles, 5.7 times; at 25 miles, 6.1 times; at 30 miles, 6.3 times.

The observations of the Piche instruments, as exposed in Signal Service shelters at 18 different stations, gave the results in the table following. (See Monthly Weather Review, September, 1888, p. 236.) The readings on the scale of the Piche instrument have been converted into depths of water that would be evaporated from a free surface of water within the same instrument shelter during the respective months by multiplying them by the constant coefficient 1.33, so that the evaporations here given in inches of depth of water correspond entirely to the ordinary methods of measuring rainfall. Evaporation, in inches, observed with Piche instruments within the Signal Service thermometer shelters in 1888.

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a In October at Boise City the evaporation was 7.60 inches.

Profesor Russell has also devised the following very satisfactory formula connecting the total daily evaporation in inches with the meteorological elements on which it depends, viz, the vapor tensions, Pw for mean wet bulb and pa for mean dew-point temperatures, (b) barometric pressure, by means of which he has been able to compute

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