Soil drying has been an environmental problem in perennial artificial Caragana shrub land in the semi-arid Loess Hilly region. Cutting management was expected to have an effect on improving soil moisture regulation and thus preventing the problem. In this study, soil water conditions were measured using neutron probes for a long-term investigation stand of Caragana korshinsk Kom in the Shanghuang experimental station in northwestern China, and the effect of cutting management on soil moisture was analyzed. The results showed that the depth of soil water recharge increased with the precipitation amount, and the recharge depth in cut plot was close to that of control when the precipitation was relatively low (within 45.9 mm). However, when the rainfall was heavy enough, the recharge depth in cut plot was lower than control. The amounts of water recharge in both control (R₁) and cut (R₂) plots were positively related to precipitation (P) (P<0.05), being fitted by the relationship formulae of R₁=0.70P+2.13 and R₂=0.54P+5.01, respectively. This suggests that the rain recharge rate (the percentage of rain recharge in the total amount of rainfall) in control plot is higher than in cut plot. Defining rainfall loss as the sum of interception and runoff, and rainfall loss rate as the percentage of rainfall loss in the total amount of rainfall, then the rainfall loss rates in control (L₁) and cut (L₂) plots were exponentially related to their surface soil moisture contents (S₁, S₂) before the rain as L₁=2.54exp(0.22S₁) and L₂=2.40exp(0.27S₂), respectively. When soil moisture contents in the surface layer were equal in the two plots before the rain event, the rainfall loss rate in cut plot was higher than that of control. The largest water recharge depth and the increased amount of soil water storage resulting from rain were lower in cut plot than control in a corresponding period. However, the water use depth and the decreased amount of water storage in dry months were also lower than control. These suggest that cutting can reduce the water consumption of the Caragana shrub, but at the same time, the water supply is also reduced in the cut land, which may be caused by increased surface runoff due to the lower vegetation cover. The soil moisture in 20-160 cm increased for a short period (about two months in this study) after cutting. Then the soil moisture in cut plot was close to that in control plot. In rainy year and the year after rainy year (2003-2004 in this study), soil moisture in cut land was lower than control and the soil water storage in 0-400 cm soil layer was up to 45.9 mm lower than that in control plot. Cutting recovered soil moisture in the 200-400 cm soil layer but the water loss in the upper layer of 0-200 cm was more significant. Along with the growth of the coppice and the increase in vegetation cover in the cut land, the surface runoff declined, whereas the water consumption of the coppice forest increased. Consequently, the effect of cutting on soil moisture became weak after three years.