State Agricultural Society. 475 



ALKALI SOILS. 



BY E. F. AIKEN, OF SACRAMENTO, 



The matter under discussion is still an open question, and it will require 

 something beside mere theory to bring about a satisfactory result, to my 

 mind. 



1 have not the presumption to say that a few croppingsof a particular 

 kind of vegetable known to have a peculiar affinity for the alkaloids 

 in these soils will reclaim them and bring them into such a state that 

 they wdl readily grow and mature any crop the cultivator may feel 

 disposed to raise. The best method for reclaiming these soils is yet to 

 be learned by experience, and it will require science — science combined 

 with agriculture in its true sense — to bring about the desired result. 



When we speak of uniting science with agriculture, we have reference 

 to science in its broadest sense. A science, technically speaking, is a 

 particular branch of human knowledge which has been systematized, its 

 principles and rules defined, its department circumscribed, and arbitrarily 

 established. In this respect chemistry and physiology are sciences j 

 but the science we wish to bring into action to accomplish the end in 

 view is that science which is the observation of nature, the accumula- 

 tion of facts and figures, and the inferences to be deducted from, them 

 for practical application and use. Positive knowledge is what we want; 

 belief in theory is not knowledge. What we learn by practice and 

 experiment are facts. 



Nature does her work by fixed laws; she is not a confused mass of 

 matter ami things, ever changeable, doing one thing to-day and to-morrow 

 the reverse. All the minute and different parts of nature in their rela- 

 tions with each other are mutual and exact. There is a reason for every- 

 thing, and a fixed rule by which everything mysterious is controlled and 

 directed. There are many things concerning the laws of nature beyond 

 our comprehension. There is nothing which should be beyond our 

 inquiry. 



There is a mysterious and wonderful power always at work in the 

 vegetable world, from the germination of the seed we plant through 

 the progress and development of its vegetable life. The relation of the 

 different soils to the plants produced, the peculiar effects of heat, light 

 and air, rains and droughts, their uses and results, are all more or less 

 mysteries to us; yet from observation of those works of nature which 

 are every day revealed to us, we can have no doubt that all these 

 mysteries rest upon established principles and fixed laws. The finding- 

 out by investigation and practical experiment any of those so-called laws 

 is positive knowledge, and, properly speaking, science. 



This is the science that must be brought into combination with a 

 thorough working and cultivation of these soils before they will be 

 reclaimed. Tins is a subject that essentially concerns the people of Cal- 

 ifornia, as in all parts of the State, especially in our valleys near streams 



