230 MOVEMENTS OF SALTS IN THE SOIL 



with straw ; but deep cultivation as soon as the wet season is 

 over is the most effective plan, as a considerable layer of soil 

 is by this means at once saved from the invasion of the alkali. 



It is interesting to note that the plans just mentioned, 

 which commend themselves so thoroughly to modern views 

 and accurate knowledge, are precisely those adopted by the 

 Hindoo cultivator. In a letter on the subject of alkali lands, 

 sent to me in 1884 by Major D. G. Pitcher, Assistant Agri- 

 cultural Director for Oudh, he says : 



* Where the soil is " Oosur," or simply barren and not 

 efflorescent with salts, I do not think it will pay to attempt 

 to render the land fertile other than in the way .the natives 

 in some parts do themselves ; and that is to raise a boundary 

 round a small plot so as to keep the rain water on it, and 

 to go on tilling it again and again each year in their spare 

 time until it bears something ; once it begins to bear it goes 

 on improving. Again, where there is efflorescence, they find 

 that in certain localities covering the ground with straw for 

 two or three years restores its fertility.' 



When alkali land has been reclaimed by the means indi- 

 cated, and the band of salts has been lowered as far as 

 possible, the subsequent cultivation must of course be such 

 that the benefits gained are not afterwards thrown away. 

 The point to be always kept in view is the adoption of 

 summer tillage, and of any other means which may reduce 

 to the lowest point the evaporation from the surface. Crops 

 which admit of being hoed between the rows during summer, 

 present, as Hilgard points out, many advantages. Another 

 class of crops well suited to alkali lands are those shading 

 the surface with thick foliage, and possessed of deep roots. 

 Lucerne excellently fulfils these conditions. In land covered 



