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Bulletin No. 183 - Water-Holding Capacity Of Irrigated Soils, Orson W. Israelsen, Frank L. West

UAES Bulletins

All information that will 'enable the irrigator to use water economically is valuable to arid-climate agriculture. In many arid-climate regions, including the western part of the United States, excessive waste of water occurs in the irrigation of highland porous soil areas, as a result of lack of information concerning the capacity of the soil to hold water. Following the waste of water on the uplands by excessive percolation through open soils, vast lowland areas are rendered partially or wholly nonproductive by water-logging. To illustrate, a gravelly bench soil four feet deep, if underlain by a coarse open gravel to a …