164 



EXPERIMENTAL FARMS. 



fcely no means for extensive irrigation appear practicable for several of the districts 

 here referred to in the North-west Territories. 



The presence of "alkali" in the soil in patches over certain areas in Manitoba and 

 the North-west Territories is intimately connected with the question of rainfall. An 

 alkali area may be restricted to a few square feet, or it may cover some acres. Patches 

 of alkali soil occur surrounded by land of great productiveness. 



The formation and retention of alkali are dependent upon the amount of water the 

 soil receives and the facility for sub-soil drainage. We need not now discuss the 

 occurrence of alkali nor its nature, but it is important to note that, though the amounts 

 of alkali found in samples submitted to us are often so great as to render the growth of 

 wheat impossible, we have invariably found such soils to be rich in mineral and organic 

 constituents. This shows that the soil proper is capable of acting as a fertile one, 

 provided the alkali were got rid of by drainage, irrigation, or treatment with gypsum. 



TABLE III. 



ANALYSIS OP SOILS (wATER-FREE) — NORTH-WEST TERRITORIES AND MANITOBA. 



In the foregoing table we have given analytical data of seven surface soils from 

 the North-west Territories. Though there is a greater uniformity in the texture and 

 composition of soils upon the prairies than among soils of the eastern provinces, no claim 

 is made that the vast extent of the territories is represented by these samples — they are 

 altogether too few in number. They may serve, however, to indicate the general 

 character of the soils over certain large areas. 



Without discussing these soils in detail, attention may be called to their high nitro- 

 gen content and the large amounts of organic matter that are almost invariably present. 

 These soils also contain, as a rule, more than the average amount of potash. Our results 

 do not show them to be noted for phosphoric acid, though they possess quantities quite 

 equal to those in many very fertile soils. It seems more than probale to the writer that 

 the successive cropping of the land with wheat, which ha.s been so common a practice in 

 Manitoba and the Territories for some years, must lead in the near future to the 

 necessity of replacing more particularly of available phosphoric acid. 



The great depth of the surface soil over large areas accentuates our deductions re- 

 specting the vast stores of plant food laid up in the plains for future crops. We are of 

 the belief that where poor crops only are procurable the climatic conditions are rather at 

 fault than that there is a lack of plant food. Even in soils containing injurious amounts 

 of alkali we have found, as already pointed out, an abundance of fertilizing constituents ; 

 drainage, if there is an adequate rainfall, frequently being all that is necessary to bring 

 them into a state of productiveness. 



Soil No. 87. — Represents the unfertilized and uncropped prairie soil of the Red River 

 Valley, Manitoba. It was taken from section 31, township 4, range 1, west. The 

 uniformity in the character of the soil over a very large area in Manitoba makes the 

 data here presented of more than ordinary importance. 



