LEGUMES 201 



such as sweet clover meet the conditions better it has 

 found little use on alkali lands. 



Field peas {Pisum stavium) are said by Kearney (17) to 

 germinate and produce normal seedling growth in the 

 I presence of 2000 parts per million of white alkali, mostly 

 sodium sulphate. He states that a good crop of peas can 

 be grown in the presence of 4000 parts per million of this 

 type of alkali, but that this quantity is near the upper 

 limit for the seedlings and consequently a poor stand 

 might be expected. 



Beans are ordinarily considered to be rather sensitive 

 to alkali, but Kearney (17) classifies broad beans as pro- 

 ducing pods in the presence of 4000 parts per million 

 of white alkali. They are sometimes grown as a green ma- 

 nure on alkali lands but have not found much favor because 

 other crops are better adapted both on account of climatic 

 conditions and because other crops produce more forage. 

 The seed being large, germination is better than with 

 most legumes, but where the growing season is not cool 

 the growth is not satisfactory. Neill (23) considers 2000 

 to 4000 parts per million of alkali, mostly sodium sulphate, 

 as being too much for the seedling stages of beans, but 

 states that 2000 parts per million or less will allow all 

 ordinary Wyoming crops to do well. 



A number of other leguminous plants, including lupines, 

 lentil, esparcet, and other minor forage plants, have been 

 studied under alkali conditions by Loughridge in Cali- 

 fornia (20), but none have given promise of competing 

 with alfalfa and sweet clover. 



Grasses. - True grasses are as a family more resistant 

 than the legumes. Some of the wild varieties, such as salt 

 grass and tussock grass mentioned in Chapter VI, rank as 

 the most resistant plants known. The cultivated grasses 



