IOO SOILS AND FERTILIZERS 



duction all the labor which is expended upon them, and 

 when brought under cultivation are frequently very 

 fertile. Some alkaline material in a soil is beneficial ; 

 in fact, many soils would be more productive if they 

 contained a small amount. It is the excess of alkali 

 that is destructive to plant life. 



When the places are small and located so they can 

 be underdrained at comparatively little expense, this 

 should be done, as it will prove the best and most per- 

 manent way of removing the alkali. Good surface 

 drainage should also be provided. Quite frequently a 

 quarter or more of the total alkali in the soil will, in a 

 dry time, be found near and on the surface. In such 

 cases, and if the spots are small, a large amount of the 

 alkali can be removed by scraping the surface and then 

 carting the scrapings away and dumping them where 

 they can do no damage. 



When preparing a mildly alkaline spot for a crop, 

 deep plowing should be practiced, so as to open up 

 the soil and remove the excess of alkali from the sur- 

 face. Where manure, particularly horse manure, can be 

 obtained, these spots should be manured very heavily. 

 The horse manure, when it decomposes, furnishes acid 

 products, which combine with the alkaline salts. The 

 manure also prevents rapid surface evaporation. Oats 

 are about the safest grain crop to seed on an alkali spot 

 because the oat plant is capable of thriving in an alka- 

 line soil where many other grain crops fail. 



Alkali soils are usually deficient in available nitro- 



