REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. LI 



the individual, it will be necessary for the Department to undertake a 

 practical demonstration of the efficiency of drainage in the reclamation 

 of alkali lands. 



Plans were made for such a demonstration daring the latter part of 

 the fiscal year, with the cooperation of the Utah Experiment Station 

 and some of the public-spirited people of that State. It was proposed 

 to underdrain a small tract of 10 or 20 acres and cultivate the land in 

 a proper way for two or three years to note the improvements in con- 

 dition until agricultural crops could be safely grown. The expense 

 of underdrainage when undertaken on a considerable scale should not 

 exceed $15 or $20 per acre, so that the cost of a demonstration of this 

 kind would not be great. Unfortunately the plans were interfered 

 with and the work has had to be temporarily abandoned. It should, 

 however, be taken up at the earliest practicable time. 



A great interest has been taken in this line of investigation in Mon- 

 tana, Utah, Arizona, and California, the places where the soil survey 

 litis been carried on. A great deal of interest has been expressed in 

 this enterprise, particularly in the Yellowstone Valley, at Salt Lake 

 City, and at Fresno, and plans are now under consideration for a dem- 

 onstration of this kind at these places. 



The actual field expenses of such an experiment would hardly amount 

 to more than the cost of publication of a bulletin containing recom- 

 mendations which would receive but little notice. The demonstration 

 itself, however, if definitely carried out, would be of infinitely more 

 value, as it would be an object lesson for the people and could not fail 

 to arouse an interest which would spread throughout the community. 

 While the Department is spending thousands of dollars for the inves- 

 tigation of these problems, the matter of expense of such demonstra- 

 tions should not be considered, provided, as in this case, it seems nec- 

 essary to use this means to inaugurate better methods, which will be 

 of immense benefit to the localities. 



SOIL CLIMATOLOGY. 



The Division of Soils was originally organized in the Weather 

 Bureau, under a clause "to investigate the relation of soils to climate 

 and organic life." When for administrative purposes it was reorgan- 

 ized as an independent division of the Department, this work was still 

 recognized as of paramount importance and is still authorized under 

 the first clause of the annual appropriation bill. It was pointed out 

 that the soil, being the receptacle of the rainfall and maintaining the 

 only immediate water supply for crops, is a factor of climatology, and 

 as different types of soil maintain different quantities of water, it may 

 be assumed for all practical purposes that crops growing on these dif- 

 ferent t} 7 pes of soil, even with the same rainfall and temperature, are 

 really under different climatic conditions. This is the basis of much 



