74 THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 



deposits it there. This method can only be successful when the alkali 

 salts are limited in quantity, and no one need expect to be able to rid 

 badly charged lands from their alkali by plowing it under. 



3d. By plowing under green or dry crops. If grain can be made to 

 grow on the alkali land at all the turning under of it, either green or 

 dry, will in course of time greatly reduce the alkali. The turned- 

 under stubble or straw forms in decaying an acid, which in many- 

 instances will combine with and counteract the effects of the alkali. 

 Similarly, straw stacks spread on alkali spots and plowed under will 

 considerably reduce the alkali. But manure containing ammonia and 

 other salts should not be used, as it will, on the contrary, only increase 

 the alkali by adding other or similar salts to those already in the soil. 



4th. Cropping. If water, either in the form of sufficient rain or as 

 irrigation can be had, alkali lands can be reclaimed by cropping. It is 

 amply proved that beets and carrots, as well as other plants, such as 

 salt-bush (Chenopodium), take up large quantities of alkali salts, and 

 in the course of a few years render alkali soils available for grain. 

 Wheat also extracts alkalies, and repeated croppings with grain will in 

 the course of time prepare the soil for vines and trees. Bermuda grass 

 will completely remove the alkali from soils to the depth at which the 

 roots can penetrate, and must be recommended for the worst places. 

 Afterwards, cropping with annual crops may be advisable before vines 

 are finally planted on such reclaimed lands. The Australian salt- 

 bushes, or Chenopodium, extract alkalies, and are besides liked by stock. 

 They should be introduced to alkali lands and take the place of the 

 California native salt-bushes, which are not eaten by stock. While 

 being real desert plants, they yet require some moisture in the soil, but 

 they could probably be grown anywhere on the alkali lands in this 

 State where the rainfall is over three or four jnches. 



5th. By chemicals. The use of chemicals of various kinds in coun- 

 teracting the alkali is not resorted to by our farmers as it should be. 

 The principle upon which chemicals can be used is that obnoxious 

 or greatly injurious alkalies may be changed into less obnoxious and 

 less injurious salts, or even into fertilizers. The most available of 

 these chemical compounds are gypsum (sulphate of lime) and lime 

 (carbonate of lime). When the alkali consists mainly of carbonates, 

 such as carbonate of sodium (sal-soda) or potassium carbonate (saler- 

 atus), in other words of the class which we have designated as class 

 number one, the most dangerous and worst class of alkalies to combat, 

 gypsum may be used as an antidote" or rather as a means to convert 

 these alkalies into alkalies of the second class, or the sulphates. The 

 principle upon which this is done is to displace the sulphate in the 

 gypsurn and force it to combine with the alkali (sodium carbonate) 

 and form sulphate of sodium (Glauber salt), an alkali belonging to the 

 third class of alkalies, and which is twenty times less injurious to vege- 

 tation than is class number one. The change is made on the follow- 

 ing principle, and might be thus illustrated: To the alkali in the soil 

 (carbonate of sodium), add sulphate of lime. As soon as the mixture 

 is made with sufficient water, a change will take place, and the sub- 

 stances (carbonate of sodium and sulphate of lime) will form new 



