HUMOROUS--"A Leedle Mistakes," Page 31; Sharper Than a Razor, 31; A
Coming Dividend, 31.

NEWS OF THE WEEK--Page 31.

MARKETS--Page 32.




DEW AND SOIL MOISTURE.


Bulletin No. 6 of Missouri Agricultural College Farm is devoted to an
account of experiments intended to demonstrate the relation of dew to
soil moisture. Prof. Sanborn has prosecuted his work with that patience
and faithfulness characteristic of him, and the result is of a most
interesting and useful nature.

The Professor begins by saying that many works on physics, directly or
by implication, assert that the soil, by a well-known physical law,
gains moisture from the air by night. One author says "Cultivated soils,
on the contrary (being loose and porous), very freely radiate by night
the heat which they absorb by day; in consequence of which they are much
cooled down and plentifully condense the vapor of air into dew." Not all
scientific works, however, make this incautious application of the fact
that dew results from the condensation of moisture of the air in contact
with cooler bodies. Farmers have quite universally accepted the view
quoted, and believe that soils gain moisture by night from the air. This
gain is considered of very great importance in periods of droughts, and