DIVISION OF SOILS. 125 



owner is disheartened, and is not inclined to invest money where ordi- 

 nary means of cultivation have failed to produce profitable returns. 

 It was necessary to make a practical demonstration of the possibilities 

 of growing Sumatra tobacco in Connecticut to get the industry started. 

 The recommendations of the Department in this regard were unheeded 

 until the correctness of its predictions was thus demonstrated. 



Attention was called to the possibility of reclaiming the alkali soils 

 of the Yellowstone Valley in Bulletin No. 14, and, in Report No. 64, 

 the desirability of reclaiming the great alkali flat in the Salt Lake 

 Valley, covering upward of 60,000 acres of redeemable land, was 

 pointed out. I feel that it will be necessary, in order to secure the 

 greatest benefit from the soil investigations, to make an actual demon- 

 stration of the practicability and efficiency of underdrainage 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 rising 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 haths (60 feet) below the surface, and in 1858 it was 2 or 3 feet. No tem- 

 porary improvement can arrest the natural course of things, and notwithstanding 

 accidental checks, the work of deterioration if left to itself will gradually com- 

 plete itself, the completion depending upon the amount of land the amount of 

 water can affect. Attention is called to proper construction of canals and irrigat- 

 ing ditches, so as to prevent loss from seepage, and the necessity of economy in 

 the use of water. With such precautions taken underdrainage would be a sure 

 means of reclaiming the lands from alkali and seepage waters. There is no eco- 

 nomical substance practicable within the means of cultivators of any section 

 capable of remedying the saline matters, but wherever drainage can be accom- 

 plished the thorough working of the surface soil, with abundance of water from 

 the canal will, if continued for a couple of seasons, dissolve 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 weil 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 gov- 

 ernment itself had been sufficiently well informed of the gravity of 

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

 in the reports published by the government of India in 1870, and even 

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

 and that the recommendations of the engineer officers ten or twenty 

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

 was becoming more and more serious and alarming, while the govern- 

 ment 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 ultra conservatism 

 of agricultural communities, and the fact that the recommendations 

 of 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 the individual it will be necessary for the Department to undertake 

 a practical demonstration of the efficiency of drainage in the reclama- 

 tion of alkali lands. 



