[shutt-smith] 



"ALKALI" CONTENT OF SOILS 



93 



significance in showing that this impregnation does not appreciably 

 distress the oat crop on a light sandy soil well supplied with humus. 



In group 1619 the concentration of alkali is highest in the surface 

 soil (A =-212 per cent), decreasing steadily in the lower samples 

 (D= -077 per cent). The growth was very sparse and poor and it 

 was evident that the limit of tolerance had been passed. 



The samples of group 1918, taken from a location in the same 

 field and absolutely bare of vegetation, show a very heavy impregna- 

 tion of sodium carbonate, the highest concentration, -340 per cent, 

 being found in the surface soil A and decreasing with depth of sampling 

 to • 128 per cent in D. 



A feature worthy of note in connection with these two latter 

 groups is that the alkali is strongest in the surface soil, decreasing 

 steadily and more or less uniformly, to the depth of sampling, 5 feet. 



Wheat. 

 Series IV. Sec. ZZ, Tp. 5, R 22, W. of 4th Meridian. 



The samples of this series were collected in a wheat field three 

 miles north of Magrath, Alberta. The area was not under irrigation. 

 The yield for the field at the date of this visit, August 8th, 1917, was 

 estimated at 15 bushels per acre; in 1916 the yield of wheat was 

 stated at 55 bushels per acre. The surface soil was a brown loam of 

 fairly good quality, the subsoil a rather heavy clay. 



Wheat. 



Series IV. Sec. 3i, Tp. 5, R. 22, W. of 4th Meridian. 



