KINDS OF SOIL 67 



cultivated plants, sugar beets, alfalfa and sweet 

 clover are most tolerant, especially sugar beets. 

 The grains are impatient of it, but rye and barley 

 appear to stand it better than the other cereals. 

 Practically all the common farm crops will not 

 thrive in alkali soils, but after the salts are removed 

 from these soils they are found to be remarkably 

 fertile and produce very large crops. 



How to Treat Alkali Soils. There are two 

 methods of improving alkali soils; the alkali may 

 be removed, or it may be changed into another 

 form. The most common and most efficient way 

 of removing alkali, whenever non-alkaline water 

 can be had in abundance, is to irrigate the land and 

 drain it. If persisted in, irrigation and drainage 

 usually effect a permanent cure. Irrigation washes 

 the salt out of the soil and drainage carries it off. 

 The waters of some streams and wells, however, 

 contain much alkali and are not suitable for irri- 

 gation. Irrigation without drainage may make 

 a soil more alkaline, by bringing more of the salts 

 to the surface. Under-drainage alone is usually ef- 

 fective, especially for small areas that can be drained 

 at slight expense, but it is too expensive to be prac- 

 ticable except for land having a high valuation. 



In irrigating alkali land the entire surface of the 

 soil should be flooded to remove the salts. 

 In experiments by the Bureau of Soils in Utah a 

 40-acre tract of waste land containing 21-2 per cent, 

 of salt, or 6,650 tons to a depth of 4 feet, was flooded 

 with 57 inches of water per year. Of this amount 

 45 inches were recovered as drainage, and this 

 drainage water contained 2,401 tons of salt. In 

 other words one-third of the alkali was removed in 

 one year. The cost of this work is from $16 to 

 $30 per acre. 



