SALT MOVEMENT WITH WATER 



143 



of the differences in the character and concentration of 

 alkali in short distances vertically or horizontally, there 

 must be movement of water before significant movements 

 of salts are possible. 



The extent to which salts move with water passing 

 through a soil has been studied by a number of investi- 



FIG. 17. CULTIVATED LAND THAT HAD TO BE ABANDONED 

 BECAUSE OF THE RlSE OF ALKALI. 



gators. In laboratory experiments, with alkali soils kept 

 so continually moist that there was constant water move- 

 ment, the author (9) has shown that alkali, principally 

 sodium chloride, is very readily transported from one por- 

 tion of. the soil to another, either upward or horizontally. 

 The salts became very concentrated in the upper inch or 

 two of soil where the water was allowed to evaporate, 

 The first water percolating through alkali soil contained 

 several times as much salts as was found later. Tulay- 

 kov (30) found salts moved gradually and more or less 



