—Lancaster Farming. Friday, April 12, 1957
14
THIS IS THE USDA lysimeter as seen from the top. The
same crop rotation and soil management practices are
used oil this 1/500 acre plot as on the surrounding field.
The scales and other measuring devices are all under
ground. (U.S.D.A. Photo)
65 Ton Block of Earth Weighed
Each 10 Minutes by Soil Scientists
■- A 65-ton test plot, resting on
jts own giant scales, is telling U.
3. Departmnt of - Agriculture
scientists a great deal about what
Happens to water after it falls to
egrth.
This 1/500-acre block of earth,
Known as a lysimeter. is used at
the Watershed Hydrology Station
ijear Coshocton, -Ohio, operated
by USDA’s Agricultural Research
Service It is yielding valuable in
formation on where water goes,
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what it does to soils, and how
crops use it.
To the casual observer the ly
simeter appears to be just a plot
of earth -about six feet wide and
14 feet long bordered on all sides
by narrow, ground-level concrete
walls. But a closer look reveals
that the walls go 8 feet into the
ground. Earth beneath the block
has been cut away to make room
for highly sensitive scales and
other measuring equipment, with
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LYSIMETE
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CONSTRUCTION OF the 65-ton block of
earth, called a lysimeter, used in soil
water studies at USDA’S Watershed
Hydrology Station, Coshocton, Ohio, is
shown in this drawing. The underground
plenty of space for technicians to
take readings.
The soil in the block is undis
turbed except for the cutting
around-and beneath it. Its surface
is level with the surrounding
field. Information from this lysi
meter is representative of the en
tire field, on which crops are;
grown in a typical fodr-year rota
tion.
Year in and year out the weight
of the huge chunk of arth is auto
matically recorded every 10
minutes, accurately measuring
the lightest dew or the heaviest
rainfall.
The scales and the collecting
containers measure water runoff
and infiltration (water absorbed
into the soil), as well as percola
tion (drainage of water below the
root zone). Also measured by sub
traction, is the loss of water from
the ground and plants by evapora-
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tion and -transpiration (release of
water fronuthe plant leaf pores).
Tests of water drained into the
collecting tanks underground tell
how much of various nutrients,
percolate through.
Among other things,, the lysi
meter has shown the importance
of moisture condensed from the
air about 2.5 tons per acre on
an average summer evening
which totals over six inches in a
year. Tests showed that in August
1951 at the Station, dew supplied
three times as much moisture as
rainfall.
With the lysimeter it is pos
sible to relate land-management
practices to moisture conserva
tion and use. USDA scientists at
the station found,'on a small wat
ershed planted to corn, that con
tour farming slows down the run
off from a rain, so that the soil
can take in more water. In anoth-
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scales and other measuring devices
measure water runoff, infiltration, and
percolation, was well as loss of water by
evaporation and transpiration.
(U.S.D.A, Photo.)
I er test on a watershed they found
that applying'a manure mulch to
a cornfield following the first
cultivation resulted in a three
fold increase in the water stored
in the topsoil. The lysimeter
studies, used with field studies
on watersheds, show how ancTwhy
these treatments effect the dis
posal of water.
The Coshocton records show
that of Ohio’s average 38 inches
of rainfall, 13 inches ordinarily
go by surface runoif or by soil
percolation into the stream flow,
and is' inches go into the air by
evapo-transpiration from soil and
plants.
USDA scientists continue to
analyze information obtained
from the lysimeter in order to
widen the application of test re
sults. _Their studies are aimed at
developing ways of helping the
soil make better use of water.
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