34 



Soils indicate a rather low percentage of available potash as compar- 

 ed with phosphoric acid. 



RECLAIMING ALKALI SOILS. 



The reclaiming of alkali soils is simply putting them into a nor- 

 mal condition by getting rid of the excess of obnoxious salts, which 

 in Some cases, would mean the loss of valuable plant food for which 

 so much is paid in fertilizers. 



There are four ways of improving alkali soils, by scraping the 

 soil, by growing certain crops, by using gypsum, and by flooding and 

 drainage. 



Scraping the soil. As the alkali comes to the surface and is there 

 found in its most concentrated form especially after an irrigation, the 

 surface layer can be scraped off; when the accumulation occurs again, 

 the operation can be repeated. The difficulty with this method is that 

 each scraping lowers the ground a very little and by repeated scrap- 

 ings covering a number of years, it will be sufficiently lowered to 

 make a sink hole where the water carrying salts may collect and on 

 evaporation deposit a new crust of alkali. The result is that only 

 temporary relief is gained. 



Growing crops. There are plants that thrive on alkali soils or at 

 least, tolerate it. Many of them are absolutely worthless for stock 

 food or any other purpose at present known except to increase the 

 organic material of the soil. Such plants when removed naturally 

 take with them a certain amount of salts among which are the alka- 

 lies. 



There are a few plants having an economic value that will grow on 

 rather strongly alkaline soils and in the course of a few years would re- 

 move a fair amount of alkali provided the irrigation water did not 

 bring down as much as the crop removed. 



Alfalfa, Australian salt bush, and the sugar beet are among the 

 useful plants that tolerate a considerable amount of alkali. Alfalfa 

 has been grown in this country for fodder for a long time; it has aided 

 in the removal of the excess of alkali from the fields but not to the 

 extent that it would have done were less water required for its 

 growth. The Australian salt bush grows on alkali soils without 

 irrigation and is, therefore, a good agent. As a stock food it has val- 

 uable qualities though it is not one of the foods that stock usually 

 crave. 



The results with the sugar beet in the alkali lauds of the Chiuo 



