THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



275 



servative of the moisture in the soil not to know this 

 thoroughly. 



The incorporation of organic matter in the soil, 

 such as stable manure, leaves, straw, plowing under a 

 crop of weeds, or green manure, tends to break up the 

 capillary pores in the soil and retard the upward move- 

 ment of the subsoil water. But this retarding process 

 is much greater if this organic matter is spread over the 

 ground in a uniform layer or mulch. This method 

 alone has saved many an orchard when an adjoining one 

 in the same kind of soil was perishing from an excess 

 of alkali. 



It should not be forgotten that it is water that dis- 

 solves the alkalis, not moisture. For which reason th'e 

 water in the subsoil must be kept below the surface at 

 least three, four, five and six feet, according to the soil 

 and the crops. It is the standing water below the sur- 

 face which soaks up the salts, and they must be drained 

 away until the water table will not send up water, but 

 moisture only, a sort of subsoil evaporation, to coin an 

 expression, the water coming up as wet vapor, or merely 

 wetness, leaving its salts behind, they being unable to 

 follow unless held in solution. 



As soon as water from rain or irriigation begins to 

 fill the soil, the standing water below with its alkalis in 

 solution commences to rise, but by keeping this subsoil 

 water at a depth of five or six feet, and thus allowing 

 an easy movement of moisture through the land, the 

 work of reclamation is easily attained. Here is where 

 the rotation of crops may be called upon to aid. The 

 farmer has been growing wheat, barley, small fruits, 

 corn, etc., and the soil has become so impregnated with 

 alkali as to prevent the growth of any more similar 

 crops. Now when he is leaching the alkalis out of the 

 soil he plants gross feeders, plants that have an affinity 

 for alkali. Sorghum and sugar beets are recommended 

 for correctives of alkali soils, but there are many other 

 plants that may be used for the same purpose, such as 

 asparagus, onions, sweet clover, and among the fruits, 

 pears, figs, pomegranates and date palms, all of which 

 withstand the action of alkalis when they would kill 

 cereals and small fruits. 



The reason is that all sugar-producing plants re- 

 quire large quantities of alkali, particularly the carbon- 

 ates, for starch is produced by the decomposition of 

 carbonic acid, which the plant breathes in through its 

 leaves, and takes up from the soil through its roots. 

 Now, taking the carbon out of the alkalis renders them 

 innocous, just the same as does vinegar or acetic acid, 

 which is also always forming in plants that produce 

 sugar. Not to be misunderstood, it may be well to say 

 here that this starch is transformed into sugar, woody 

 fiber and cellular tissue. When it comes to raising 20 

 to 40 tons of sugar beets per acre, carrying 17 to 22 per 

 cent of sugar, and reflect that 100 parts of the green 

 syrup of sugar beets carbonated show 9.18 per cent of 

 alkali ashes, and that the leaves and root fibers will 

 show nearly as much more, it is a simple sum in arith- 

 metic to demonstrate that it will not take many such 

 crops to remove the alkalis, and make it necessary to add ' 

 more voluntarily as a fertilizer. Indeed, in non-alkali 

 soils it is necessary to add alkalis as fertilizers in culti- 

 vating beets. Within two or three years the alkali- 

 devouring plants will have removed so much of the 

 alkali from the soil that barley and wheat can be intro- 

 duced, and afterward a good stand of alfalfa secured. 

 All of these attempts at reclamation are, in the opinion 

 .of the author, equivalent to a rotation of crops, since 



they benefit and strengthen the soil by taking away 

 elements that certain plants do not require, as well as 

 add those which they need. 



The following general rules to follow in reclaiming 

 alkali soil may be considered as a recapitulation of what 

 has been said in this chapter, and in all the authorities 

 on the subject: 



First Insure good and rapid drainage to a depth 

 of three or four feet, in which case flooding the land 

 with water is a simple and sure method of washing out 

 the alkali. 



Second Plow deep ; say, twelve inches. 



Third Furrow land and plant sorghum in the bot- 

 tom of the furrows. Irrigate heavily, and gradually 

 cultivate down the ridges to uniformity. 



Fourth After two years in sorghum (or sugar 

 beets, etc.) deeply plowed each year and cultivated 

 frequently plant barley. Have the surface of the 

 ground well leveled, and flood heavily before planting. 



Fifth Seed to any desired crop, for if the land is 

 at all porous a stand of any ordinary crop can be se- 

 cured, except in the worst spots. 



What has been said with reference to the black and 

 white alkalis, is applicable to the other alkali salts, the 

 chlorides (common salt, etc.), nitrates, muriates, etc., 

 most of which are beneficial and necessary to plants in 

 reasonable quantities, but deleterious and destructive in 

 excess, but, we repeat, not so dangerous as the sodas. 



The processes of chemical transformations are al- 

 ways going on in nature, and every soil, together with 

 the plants or crops growing upon it, constitute a vast 

 laboratory, in which materials of an almost infinite 

 variety are in a constant state of manufacture, and by 

 acquiring even a superficial knowledge of what nature 

 is doing and trying to do, man will be better able to di- 

 rect nature in his direction to his profit. Nature is 

 perfectly willing that this should be done, and if she is 

 diverted from her purposes and does too much or too 

 little, it is because the man behind the plow is looking 

 the other way. 



Adobe soils and the hardpans have been reserved 

 for another chapter, as having a closer relation to drain- 

 age, water, and cultivation, than to arid lands. Adobe 

 is a peculiar kind of clay of several varieties, and the 

 hardpans, though sometimes arable, in general resemble 

 the cement plaster which has been found unimpaired in 

 the pyramids and temples of Egypt after thousands of 

 years' exposure to the elements. 



It is reasonable to suppose that plants which will 

 grow in heavily charged alkali soils, do so because they 

 have an affinity for the alkaline salts, and take up largo 

 quantities of them. Whence it is clear that, by con- 

 tinually growing, cutting and removing this "alkali 

 vegetation," the excess salts in the soil will be gradually 

 eliminated, and thus the soil be fitted for the growth of 

 other desired plants. This is the law and the gospel in 

 the case of the commonly known "salt meadows," of 

 which there are estimated to be in the United States 

 over one hundred thousand square miles. The attempt 

 to reclaim these lands in this manner has proved suc- 

 cessful in Germany and Holland, and has passed beyond 

 the mere experimental stage in the United States. 

 Wherefore the query : Is not the same law applicable to 

 the overcharged alkali lands of the arid and semi-arid 

 regions ? 



The Primer of Irrigation, a 300-page book, and THE 

 IRRIGATION AGE one year $1.50. 



