274 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



less difficult to eliminate the former by the same process 

 that carried them into the soil, intelligently applied. 



One per cent of alkali salts in an average soil one 

 foot deep equals 40,946 pounds dry, and 55,146 pounds 

 wet, too great a quantity for the successful growth of 

 cereals, although the soil may be very rich in all the 

 other plant foods, which is generally the case in all 

 alkali soils, and this percentage will prevent the growth 

 of trees, bushes, vines and root crops in general. Some- 

 times the alkali is near the surface, in the first two 

 inches of it ; indeed, ttie tendency of the alkalis is 

 toward the surface, in this case the one per cent of 

 alkali would mean a weight of the salts in a foot deep 

 acre of only about 6,824 pounds dry, or 9,191 pounds 

 wet, a quantity not in excess if distributed uniformly 

 through the soil. But lying at the immediate surface, 

 the cereal grains cannot germinate, or if they do the 

 young and tender plants perish from thirst, literally, 

 the alkalis absorbing all the water around them, al- 

 though there may be plenty of untainted water in the 

 subsoil, in which case deep plowing and turning the 

 soil over will furnish a top soil in which the seeds may 

 germinate and reach a growth able to resist the alkali 

 turned under. In fact, the roots of the plants will 

 reach beyond the alkali, for the latter will then have 

 again sought the surface, where it can do no harm. 



Alfalfa, for instance, will grow in a moderately 

 alkaline soil, because the long tap roots penetrate to the 

 subsoil depths, where there is less alkali. Moreover, the 

 thick growth and luxuriant foliage shade the ground 

 and prevent evaporation, which is the handmaid of 

 alkali deposits. 



All soils showing less than one-fifth of one per 

 cent of alkali salts, that is, less than 9,000 pounds to 

 the foot acre dry, or 12,000 pounds wet, may be consid- 

 ered safe for all kinds of crops, and there will never 

 be any danger from excess of alkalis, so long as good 

 water is used and the land well drained and cultivated. 

 When the alkali goes beyond one-fifth to two-fifths per 

 cent, general crops fail, as a rule, and spots begin to 

 show when cultivated. And when the alkali reaches 

 four-tenths and six-tenths of .one per cent, while gen- 

 eral crops will not grow, sweet clover and the common 

 run of fleshy, scented and sugary plants will grow and 

 produce large crops, but must be harvested early in the 

 case of forage plants, as has already been said, else they 

 will become bitter and uneatable. 



There are, as has been said, about 197 species of 

 plants which possess a great affinity for alkali and will 

 luxuriate in masses of it where all other vegetation fails 

 to gain a foothold. Thus, greasewood. or creosote bush, 

 will flourish in a soil containing 194,760 pounds of 

 alkali salts per acre one foot deep, which is more than 

 four per cent of alkali. Scrub salt bush will grow in 

 soil containing 78,240 pounds per acre, equal t& .about 

 one and one-half per cent. Samphire luxuriates in soil 

 containing 306,000 pounds of alkali per acre, or about 

 six per cent. Wheat, however, will not grow where the 

 soil contains a total of 20,520 pounds of the sulphates, 

 carbonates, chlorides and nitrates of soda and potash 

 per acre one foot deep, which is less than one-half of one 

 per cent of the weight of the soil. 



ATTEMPTS AT RECLAMATION. 



It is impossible to establish any rule or set of rules 

 for the adaptation of alkali lands to profitable crops. 

 The natural growth of numerous varieties and species 

 of plants on strong alkalis is of very little moment to 



the farmer, his main inquiry being: How shall I get 

 rid of the excess of alkali ? The whole object of culti- 

 vating the soil is to compel it to produce something 

 useful as well as profitable, otherwise it is labor lost to 

 put a plow in the ground. But in the arid and semi- 

 arid lands the soil may be exceedingly fertile for general 

 crops, and after cultivation and irrigation may become 

 so impregnated with alkali as to lose that fertility in 

 spite of the quantities of essential plant food still in 

 the soil. 



Where this calamity overtakes the farmer he can 

 not very well wander about and take up a new location 

 on fresh land and again go through the same experi- 

 ence. He must remain rooted to the soil, so to speak, 

 and use all the information he can gather to restore his 

 land to its normal condition, or so much of it as haa 

 gone wrong. It is a well-known saying: "All signs 

 fail in dry weather," and there are several others equally 

 as apt. Some say: "It is useless to pray for rain with 

 the wind from the wrong quarter," or, "It is a dry 

 moon, and the horns up won't let the water out." In 

 the case of alkali soils there are no apt sayings, but 

 there ought to be one, and a very good one seems to be : 

 "Alkali laughs at the established methods of cultivating 

 the soil." 



When crops begin to look "sick," and black or 

 white patches appear here and there, the reason is not 

 far to seek: alkali is at work. The subsoil may be 

 alkaline; there may be a stratum of hard pan which 

 prevents the water with its solution of alkalis from 

 leaching down through beyond the reach of the roots; 

 the irrigation water may contain a large percentage of 

 alkali in solution, and, coming to the surface, carry its 

 alkali along with it; there may be an irrigation ditch 

 above and beyond, or a stream, or reservoir, from which 

 the water seeps and comes up wherever it can find an 

 outlet. In all these cases, and there are manv others, 

 except where the soil is naturally strongly alkaline, he 

 looks for the cause, and he finds it in fortuitous or acci- 

 dental additions of alkali. Excess of alkali has been 

 carried mto the soil, and he first stops any further ar- 

 rivals. The beginning of a remedy is the same in the 

 case of a thousand or more acres as in the case of but 

 one, there is merely a difference in extent of operations. 

 Then the alkali having got into the soil, he quite nat- 

 urally thinks that it may be got out in the same way it 

 got in. This is true as to methods. It drains or seeps 

 in; let it drain and seep out. It came to the surface 

 with the water through capillary action, therefore let 

 that capillary action be stopped or impeded. The water 

 from the subsoil evaporating at the surface left the 

 alkalis behind to interfere with plant life, hence, if that 

 evaporation be prevented or reduced, there will be no 

 more, or, at least, less surface deposits. 



Without stopping to consider drainage, which re- 

 quires a chapter of its own, there are two conditions or 

 processes which are keys that nearly fit the situation: 

 cultivation and rotation of crops. 



Cultivation serves a double purpose ; that of break- 

 ing up the uniform capillary spaces in the soil and pre- 

 venting the rise of the water from the subsoil to the 

 surface, and that of covering the ground with a layer 

 of dry soil, or a mulch, that prevents evaporation. In- 

 deed, there are cases where frequent cultivation, or 

 stirring up of the soil, have reduced the accumulations 

 of alkali to one-third the amount on uncultivated land. 

 As to its preventing evaporation, every farmer is too 

 well acquainted with the effect of cultivation as a con- 



