104 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
periments in each of the pots was, in No. 1, 2 per cent.; in No. 2, 1.33 
per cent.; in No 3, 0.81 per cent. 
Results of experiments No. 1.—The Vilmorin beet grew to one inch high, 
and then died. The whole of the plants were stunted and dwarfed. 
The corn germinated and attained a height of five inches, developed two 
leaves around the stalk, and then died; the plants also dwarfed. > 
Experiment No. 2.—Vilmorin beets grew favorably after germination 
for two weeks, whén they also died; the plants were dwarfed, but green 
and otherwise apparently healthy; a large number of the seeds planted 
germinated. Of the corn about half the number of seeds planted germ- 
inated, the stems growing to seven or eight inches high, but thin, feeble, 
and not well developed in color. <Aiter three weeks’ growth they did not 
appear to further mature, but preserved the green color of the leaf as 
long as watered. After three months they were removed from the 
green-house. 
Experiment No. 3.—The seeds cf the Vilmorin beet germinated more 
abundantly than in the previous trials. They did not appear to grow 
any larger, individually, than those of No. 2, merely in greater numbers. 
A much greater proportion of kernels of maize germinated in this soil, 
and the plants were much more healthy, two of them tillering with stems 
ten inches high and larger leaf twelve cr fourteen inches long. This 
specimen of corn would have continued to grow had the season or tem- 
perature been sufficiently warm, but as autumn was aimost over, the corn 
made no progress after three weeks from planting. The cotyledons of 
some of the seeds in this pot rotted in the way described in the record 
of the first experiments. 
These experiments clearly indicate the reason of the failure of growth. 
There was abundance of water supplied in all of them. The failure 
was not due to want of water. But even in experiment No. 3, where 
the proportion of common salt was reduced to .81 per cent., the kernels 
of corn rotted after germination, and the beets died after growing two 
inches high. The diminished amount of salt present allowed a larger 
number of seeds to start; but = entrauce of the salt too abundantly 
in the growing plant at an early period of life choked out the other 
mnineral supply, and the plants ceased to grow. 
This experimeut showed a limited success arrived at by admixture of 
the soil, but not to that extent to justify any recommendation being 
made to improve these soils on a large scale, by hauling soil from 
other localities, or by deep plowing to turn up the subsoil aud mix it in. 
it is not likely-that, at the usual depth to which plows reach, any lesser 
amount of salt would be found in the soil, but the reverse. 
The only mode of treating these soils, then, is by the percolating influ- 
ence of water, which, flowing through the surface soil, and draining off 
into lower channels and river-beds, carries off from the soil a certain 
and considerable amount of the salt. This is naturally accomplished 
by the rain-fall; for the annual amount of which within this district we 
have no exact data on which to depend. But judging trom similar posi- 
tions on our continent, it must be slight, perhaps under seven inches, 
which amount dves not fall wholly in the growing season, in which case 
the rain fall cannot be depended upon for the needed supply of water, 
and hence the ouly alternative is that of irrigation from distant water- 
courses, the supply trom which must be abundant to be of value during 
the first few years. After the growth of salt-loving plants for a couple 
of seasons, and the washing off of some of the salt by the flooding of the 
fields, then the soil may be deprived of sufficient excess of the saline 
matter to alluw of roots, such as potatoes, turnips, &c., being raised. 
