490 HARSHBERGER— INFLUENCE OF SEA WATER [April 22, 



plants, although the texture of the soil, its aeration and the lines of 

 marsh drainage are influential factors. In the reclaiming of these 

 salt marshes, as has been done so successfully along the Bay of 

 Fundy^- in Nova Scotia, the hydrometer affords a ready means of 

 determining accurately what amelioration has been secured by ditch 

 drainage. The same method of research can be applied to the study 

 of the alkali soils in many parts of the world, especially in our west- 

 ern states, and the farmer can test the presence or absence of salts 

 and their relative amounts in the soil. 



Some years ago Scofield^'* determined the salt-water limits of 

 wild rice, with a view to ascertaining the areas which could be suc- 

 cessfully devoted to the cultivation of this valuable but long-neglected 

 food grass. After investigations by means of the electric bridge 

 along Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River, Scofield assumed that 

 the salt-water limit of wild rice is approximately represented by 0.03 

 of the normal solution of sodium chloride, while the concentration 

 of the water of Chesapeake Bay is about 0.28 of a normal solution 

 of sodium chloride. So that in establishing cultures of wild rice 

 along the coast streams it is highly important that the concentration 

 of the water covering these areas be determined either by the electric 

 method or by the hydrometer, which is simple and equally applicable. 

 Similarly Fraps^* determined that 0.3 per cent, of salt is dangerous 

 to the true rice plant where rice farms along the coast are supplied 

 with water pumped from streams occasionally subjected to salt water 

 influences. 



The distribution of animals is also profoundly influenced by the 

 salinity of the water. C)ccasionally extensive oyster beds are ruined 

 by flooding with fresh water, and the oysterman can readily deter- 

 mine the influential density of the water which covers his submerged 

 plantation by means of the hydrometer. Two years ago the follow- 

 ing was printed in the Trenton Ez'cning Times of Friday, August 



'^ Harshberger, John W., " The Reclamation and Cultivation of Salt 

 Marshes and Deserts," Bulletin Geographical Society of Philadelphia, July, 

 1907. 



"Scofield, Carl S., "The Salt Water Limits of Wild Rice," Bull. 72. 

 U. S. Bureau of Plant Industry, 1905. 



'* Trgps, G. S., " The Effect of Salt Water on Rice," Texas Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, Bull. 122, June, 1909. 



