ALKALIS 



REH 



ALKALIS AND ALKALINE EARTHS 



Important 

 Factors. 



Soil-washing. 



American 

 Results. 



American and 



Indian 



Experience. 



Reclamation 

 easy. 



Soil-pro tectiou. 



Plants that, prow 

 on Saline Soils. 



Protection from 

 Cattle. 



Soil-garment. 



Invading 

 Grasses. 



Fodder a 

 Necessity. 



Indigenous 

 Saltworts. 



looked for. Gypsum is useless without water and unnecessary where the car- 

 bonate is absent. But its action is largely physical in allowing soil percolation. 

 Unless, therefore, a free subsoil natural drainage exists it must be provided 

 before any heavy expenditure is incurred for gypsum as a manure. At the 

 same time land treated with gypsum should be planted with saltworts or other 

 plants that have been found hitherto impossible of cultivation. If these can 

 now be raised on the soil, it may be inferred that provision has been thereby 

 made for the injurious salts being washed out of the soil, and that, too, long before 

 it has been necessary to add, from a financial point of view, a prohibitive amount 

 of gypsum. 



American Results. This leads, therefore, very naturally to a brief reference 

 to the admirable investigations and practical results that have been attained by 

 Hilgard and Loughridge in the reclamation of alkali wastes in California (Agri. 

 Ledy., 1896, No. 1). These officers performed an extensive series of experiments 

 and analyses, with the result that they arrived emphatically at the same con- 

 clusions as our Indian experts had done many years previously, namely, re- 

 garding the history of the formation of the alkali salts, their movements in the 

 soil, and lastly their treatment with drainage, chemical manures, and selected 

 or special crops. The difference between American and Indian experience in 

 this matter may therefore be said to be that in the former country the scientific, 

 experts were at the same time the administrative staff who had to deal with 

 the alkali wastes. Their observations were not treated as scientific theories, but 

 wore at once put to practical test, with this result, that alkali wastes are in 

 America not only regarded as comparatively easy of reclamation but have 

 actually been largely turned into some of the most profitable of lands. 



Helpful Vegetation. Medlicott urged that to protect the soil from the 

 excessive heat of the summer months and consequent injurious capillary efflores- 

 cence, it was most important to alleviate the serious Indian defect, viz. the 

 almost total absence of arborescent vegetation from the agricultural tracts of the 

 country. But there is an aspect of vegetation that seems to have entirely 

 escaped Medlicott's observation, namely, the employment of certain plants 

 as direct agents in reclamation. It is well known that many plants not only 

 can survive on soils that contain a proportion of alkali that would be fatal to 

 others, but that they actually luxuriate under such soil conditions. Of this 

 nature may be mentioned the Saltworts (see under Barilla, pp. 1 1 3-4). Long, there- 

 fore, before reclamation could be carried to the extent of admitting of ordinary 

 crops or even of arborescent cultivation, the soil might be protected from the 

 sun by saltworts, and have at the same time large amounts of its poisonous salts 

 removed by the temporary cultivation of such plants. 



This subject has not, however, been entirely neglected in India. It was 

 believed that were alkali lands protected from cattle for a number of years, or 

 even annually from the close of the rains through the hot months, the plants 

 produced during the rains might be encouraged to survive and even others, 

 including trees, gradually to invade such protected localities, until in a few years' 

 time the growth of a soil garment might ultimately prevent efflorescence. Such 

 experiments have actually been conducted, and with considerable success. The 

 plant found first to invade the protected barren lands was the grass known as 

 khdr usara (sj>oi'oboii* nmbicns), which from its vernacular name may be 

 inferred to be a salt-loving species. itoroboin* coromn</?fimf* (bhur- 

 buroi) also springs up readily enough, but only during the rains. It, however, 

 affords useful fodder, although it does not protect the land from the summer's 

 heat. After partial reclamation the dab (Em y ran tin fi/nomifotden), the dub 

 (Ci/iio(lonaficty1on),thebat(Dljilachnefiiscn), thejanewalAtnlt-ojiogoti <i 11 n ulit ; K-, 

 and several other species readily appear. Since fodder is of necessity a 

 pressing need in all parched lands, it is valuable to know the Indian grasses that 

 should be first resorted to in reclamation operations, but it is unfortunate that the 

 true saltworts have not hitherto been seriously investigated in India since they 

 would appear more desirable preparatory plants to any of the grasses named. Wo 

 read of a few desultory experiments having been put forth to acclimatise the 

 Australian Saltbush, but it does not seem to have occurred to any of our Indian 

 agricultural authorities that this country possesses perhaps a richer and more 

 varied assortment of indigenous saltworts than is to be found in any other. 

 In the Panjab and elsewhere a few of these have been (one might almost say) 

 systematically cultivated for the production of barilla, but not one of them, so 

 far as I can discover, has been seriously investigated as_a preparatory crop in 



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