United States Department of Agriculture. 



BUREAU OF SOILS. CIRCULAR No. 12. 



MILTON WHITNEY, CHIEF OF BUREAU. 

 [In cooperation with the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station, Prof. J. A. Widtsoe, director.] 



U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 



Washington, D. C. , December 29, 1903. 



SIR: In May, 1902, the Bureau of Soils, under your direction and by authority of 

 the Secretary of Agriculture, entered into cooperation with the Utah Experiment 

 Station for the purpose of demonstrating to the people of Utah the practicability of 

 reclaiming alkali land. A tract of 40 acres near Salt Lake City was donated for the 

 purpose by Mr. E. D. Swan, and active steps were taken to underdrain and properly 

 flood this land. The understanding was that the Bureau of Soils should have charge 

 of the actual reclamation work, and the experiment station should have charge of 

 the subsequent work of demonstrating the practicability of growing various crops on 

 what was formerly waste land. This circular, which is a report of progress, shows 

 that the actual reclamation has been nearly accomplished, and the tract will probably 

 be ready in 1904 to be turned over to the experiment station workers, who will then 

 experiment in growing different crops on the soil. 



Respectfully, THOS. H. MEANS, 



In Charge of Alkali Reclamation Investigations. 

 Prof. MILTON WHITNEY, 



Chief of the Bureau of Soils. 



RECLAMATION OF ALKALI LAND NEAR SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. 



In 1899 a party from the Bureau of Soils, in cooperation with the 

 Utah Experiment Station, made a soil survey a of that portion of the 

 Salt Lake Valley tying west of the Jordan River. In this report 

 full and careful consideration was given to the question of the alkali 

 soils around Salt Lake City, the cause of their formation, their char- 

 acter and present extent, and the means of their amelioration and 

 reclamation. The following paragraphs are taken from this report: 



On the west side of the Jordan River the earliest attempts at irrigation were on the 

 Jordan meadows, or river bottom lands, the water supply being obtained from the 



a Soil Survey in Salt Lake Valley, Utah, by Frank D. Gardner and John Stewart. 

 Field Operations, Division of Soils, 1899, pp. 78-114. This report was also published 

 as Bui. 72 of the Utah Experiment Station. 



