ALKALI AND WATER LOGGED LANDS 



19 



THE SOILS OF SALT LAKE COUNTY 



BY 



ROBERT STEWART, CHEMIST, UTAH EXPERIMENT STATION. 



A complete soil survey of the region lying west of the Jordan River 

 in Salt Lake County, Utah, was made in 1899 by the Utah Experiment 

 Station in co-operation with the Bureau of Soils of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. The physical and alkali conditions of the 

 area are quite thoroughly discussed in the report of the survey which 

 may be obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture, or 

 from the Utah Experiment Station. In this report no discussion was 

 made regarding the plant-food content of the soil and it is therefore the 

 purpose of this article to give a brief discussion of the fertility of the 

 soil from the viewpoint of plant-food actually present in the soil. 



At the time of the survey, samples of soil representative of the 

 important soil types to a depth of twelve (12) inches were carefully 

 collected and preserved for chemical analysis. The Jordan Sandy 

 loam comprises above 30% of the area investigated. Gardner and 

 Stewart in their report of the survey say, "The Jordan Sandy loam is 

 easily cultivated and is sufficiently fertile to produce almost any class 

 of crops. It forms the most valuable portion of the low salty area, 

 because of the ease with which it may be reclamed by underdrainage 

 and washing." 



The analysis of these samples of soil from this type are reported in 

 TABLE 1. Phosphorus, Potassium and Nitrogen in Jordan Sandy Loam. 

 (Results expressed as pounds per two million of soil.) 



Average . 



4000 



12633 | 2948 



