Each lysimeter box, when finished, resembles somewhat a hogshead with
one head out. The sides, however, are perfectly straight inside, having
a slight thickening in the center, on the outside, for making them
stronger. The sides and bottom of the apparatus are constructed of oak
and lined with sheet copper carefully soldered so as to be water-tight.
Six inches above, and parallel to the bottom of each of the boxes, is a
perforated copper tube, which extends entirely across the lysimeter, and
passing through one of the sides connects the box with an underground
vault in which the observations are taken. These tubes give an outlet to
the drainage water, as described further on. The lysimeters are made of
any required depth, the two which are shown in section being three and
two-thirds and six and two-thirds feet deep, respectively.
The following method is employed for filling them with soil: There are
first placed in the bottom of each lysimeter six inches of fine sand,
sifted and washed, which fills them up to the level of the drainage
tubes. The lysimeters are then filled with fine, sifted surface soil, to
the depth of three and six feet, respectively, making a complete pair of
lysimeters, and leaving two inches of the lysimeter boxes projecting
above the surface of the soil so that each one will receive exactly its
proper share of the rain-fall.
The lysimeters of the other pair, which are the same size as the first,
are filled in a different way. The lysimeters are first constructed and
placed over vertical columns of soil _in situ_, which are obtained by
digging away all the surrounding soil and leaving the columns standing.
The shorter lysimeter is sunk in this way to within two inches of its
entire length. It is then tipped over carrying the column of soil with
it. Six inches of the subsoil are then removed, when the drainage tube
and sand are put in, as in the first pair, and the bottom of the tube
soldered in place. The lysimeter is thus filled with the natural soil in
place. The longer box is in the same way filled, as far as possible,
with the soil in place, but a gravelly nature of the soil may render it
impossible to do the filling with a single column unbroken, so the
gravel and sand from the lower portion of the soil are to be filled in
separately. The drainage tube and bottom of sand are placed in the
longer lysimeter in the same way as in the shorter.
[Illustration:
FIGURE 23.
GROUND PLAN AND VERTICAL SECTION OF LYSIMETERS AND VAULTS SHOWING
POSITION OF THE APPARATUS.
1, 1, 1, 1, Lysimeters.
2, 2, 2, 2, Receiving bottles.
3, 3, Supplying apparatus.
4, 4, Skylights.
5, 5, 5, 5, Wall of vault.
6, 6, Brick walls.
7, Entrance Steps.
8, Vault.
]
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