L KEPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



the alkali soils of the Yellowstone Valley and to the desirability of 

 reclaiming the great alkali flat in the Salt Lake Valley, covering upward 

 of 60,000 acres of redeemable land. It will be necessary, in order to 

 secure the greatest benefit from the soil investigations, to make an 

 actual demonstration of the practicability and efficiency of under- 

 drainage in the reclamation of these alkali tracts. 



In 1864 the Government of India published correspondence relating 

 to the deterioration of lands from the presence of alkali, in which the 

 following statements were made: 



In the districts reported there were 59 villages in which the agricultural indus- 

 tries had been wholly or in large part destroyed by the rise of alkali. By the year 

 1850 it had made great progress and was becoming alarming. From that time until 

 1858 it increased yearly with frightful rapidity. The cause was attributed to the ris- 

 ing of the springs throughout the tract to within a very short distance of the surface 

 of the soil. First of all is the development of the alkali; second, condition of dried 

 swamp; third, inundation. Water in these valleys used to be about 40 hath s (60 

 feet) below the surface, and in 1858 it was 2 or 3 feet. No temporary improvement 

 can arrest the natural course of things, and notwithstanding accidental checks the 

 work of deterioration, if left to itself, will gradually complete itself, the completion 

 depending upon the amount of land the amount of water can affect. Attention is 

 called to proper construction of canals and irrigating ditches, so as to prevent loss 

 from seepage, and the necessity of economy in the use of water. With such precau- 

 tions taken, underdrainage would be a sure means of reclaiming the lands from 

 alkali and seepage waters. There is no economical substance practicable within the 

 means of cultivators of any section capable of remedying the saline matters, but 

 wherever drainage can be accomplished the thorough working of the surface soil, with 

 abundance of Mater from the canal, will, if continued for a couple of seasons, dis- 

 solve and carry away the noxious salts, but the drainage must be efficient and rapid, 

 otherwise the salt will merely dissolve and be again deposited in the same place. 

 Drainage will prevent as w T ell as cure, and even a small decimal percentage will 

 surely and in no very long time accumulate to 3 or 4 per cent or more, according to 

 the circumstances of the ground in relation to evaporation and drainage. Wherever 

 alkali comes from, drainage is the only and efficient cure. 



With these plain warnings from the reports of English engineers to 

 the Government of India, it would seem that the people and the 

 Government itself had been sufficiently well informed of the gravity 

 of the situation and of the means for the removal of these causes. Yet 

 in reports published b} r the Government of India in 1870, and even as 

 late as 1881, it is stated that underdrainage had not been attempted, 

 that the recommendations of the engineer officers ten or twent} 7 years 

 before had not been carried out, and that the alkali question was 

 becoming more and more serious and alarming, while the Government 

 was being called upon to support large numbers of people who had 

 been rendered destitute by the encroachments of this evil. 



In view of such marked examples as this of the ultraconservatism of 

 agricultural communities, and the fact that the recommendations made 

 by this Department are little heeded, I am becoming more and more 

 convinced that, in order to carry the lessons of the soil survey home to 



