UTILIZATION AND RECLAMATION OF ALKALI LANDS. 



475 



pounds of common salt will be required to render sugar beets 

 unsatisfactory for sugar-making. 



Passing to stein crops, we find that asparagus, originally 

 itself a denizen of the sea-board, resists considerable amounts 

 (not yet exactly determined) of common salt as well as of 

 Glauber's salt. It is even claimed that when grown with a 

 dressing of common salt the asparagus is more tender and 

 savory. But it is quite sensitive to " black alkali," which must 

 be neutralized with gypsum to render it harmless. 



Celery did well with 13,640 pounds, of which nearly 10,000 

 was common salt. But with 30,000 pounds the plants were 

 killed. 



Rhubarb was a conspicuous failure, even in the weak and 

 mostly " white " alkali lands of the Chino station tract. 



Textile Plants. Japanese hemp, while young, seemed to 

 have a hard struggle with the alkali, but at the end of the sea- 

 son stood eight feet high. The ramie plant, also, will bear 

 moderately strong alkali, apparently somewhat over 12,000 

 pounds per acre. Fla.r has not been tested in cultivation ; but 

 the wide distribution of wild flax all over the arid portions of 

 the States of Oregon and Washington, would seem to indicate 

 that it is not very sensitive. Another textile plant, the Indian 

 mallow (Abutilon wiccnnae), was found to fail on the Chino 

 alkali soil. But its close relative, cotton, does not seem to be 

 specially sensitive, according to the experience had with it in 

 the Merced river bottom in California ; and its culture is exten- 

 sive in Egypt, where no particular care seems to be exercised in 

 selecting the land for the crop. It is just possible that the 

 saline content of the soil has in California, as well as in the 

 Atlantic sea-islands, contributed to the superior length of the 

 fiber shown in the measurements made during the Census work 

 of iSSo. 1 



Tolerance of Shrubs and Trees. 



Grapevines. The European grape, Vitis vinifera, is quite 

 tolerant of white or neutral alkali salts, and will resist even a 

 moderate amount of the black so long as no hardpan is allowed 

 to form. At the Tulare substation it was found that grape- 



1 Report on Cotton Culture; loth Census of the United States, vol. 5, pp. 23 

 to 34. 



