Section III, 1920 [57] Trans. R.S.C. 



The "Alkali" Content of Soils as Related to Crop Growth 



(A Report of Progress) 



By Frank T. Shutt, M.A., D.Sc, and Alice H. Burwash, B.A. 



(Read May Meeting, 1920) 



Seven years ago the Division of Chemistry of the Experimental 

 Farm System was called upon by the Reclamation Service (then 

 known as the Irrigation Branch) of the Department of the Interior, 

 to assist in the reclassification of certain Canadian Pacific Railway 

 Company's lands within the dry belt of Southern Alberta. In this 

 work one of the objects was to ascertain and delimit the areas more 

 or less impregnated with "alkali," thus permitting, from the stand- 

 point of saline content, the classification of the areas involved into 

 irrigable and non-irrigable lands. The examination of soils from sus- 

 pected areas has included the determination of the alkali, both as to 

 nature and amount to a depth of five feet. 



In the interpretation and application of the data obtained it was 

 found necessary at the outset to employ the "limits of toxicity" as 

 proposed and temporarily adopted by American investigators in 

 reporting on the value of alkali lands. It was evident, however, 

 before the work had made much progress that the use of these limits 

 would not permit the correct classification of the lands under examin- 

 ation, chiefly owing to the fact that much of the alkali found differed 

 markedly in important features from that occurring in the Western 

 United States and which had furnished the data for the establishment 

 of the American standards. Consequent upon this discovery an 

 investigation was instituted to obtain data which might rightly be 

 used in formulating limits or standards more strictly applicable to 

 lands in Western Canada. Two reports of progress in this work have 

 already been made by the Division of Chemistry^; the present paper 

 contains an account of work accomplished in 1919-20 and constitutes 

 the third contribution in this important enquiry. 



The field work has consisted in the selection of a number of 

 areas bearing crops, either native or cultivated, and within which 

 soil samples could be secured: (1) from land producing a good crop 



' The Alkali Content of Soils as related to Crop Growth by Frank T. Shutt, 

 M.A., D.Sc, and E. A. Smith, M.A. Trans, of Royal Society of Canada, 1918, 

 pp. 83-97. 



Ibid. Trans, of Royal Society of Canada, 1919, pp. 233-242. 



Sec. Ill, Sig. S 



