Abstract

The provision of sufficient soil moisture is, as every ryot knows, one of the essential requirements for a growing crop. While it may be possible to supply this need by irrigation, it is obvious that this procedure involves a certain amount of expense: and it is clearly much cheaper to take greater advantage of the natural rainfall. Moisture is lost from the soil in two ways. Firstly by direct evaporation from the deeper layers by capillary attraction and secondly by transpiration by way of leaves of weeds. Loss of soil moisture in these two ways can be remedied, by hoeing the soil surface and thus preserving the soil- mulch and at the same time destroying the weeds. A preparation of the ground before the rains will at the same time help the rainwater to soak into the ground and prevent loss by drainage.

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