The process by which soil moisture may move in any direction through the fine (i.e. capillary) pores of the soil, under the influence of surface tension forces between the water and the soil particles. It is analogous to the rise of water in a cylindrical glass capillary tube whose end is placed in a bath of water in the laboratory, except that the pores of the soil are neither cylindrical, nor smooth-walled, nor clean. See also capillary moisture.