472 SOILS. 



(durra) are much less sensitive, as the table shows, and are 

 among the first crops to be tried on alkali lands. The related 

 millets share this resistance more or less, and we often see on 

 cultivated lands in the alkali region fine stands of barnyard 

 grass (Panicum crusgalli) of which the variety ( ?) P. muti- 

 cum is said by observers of the U. S. Dept. of Agriculture to 

 be specially resistant, and acceptable to stock. One of the most 

 successful grasses on the light alkali lands near Chino, w y here 

 most of the commonly cultivated grasses fail, was a near 

 relative of the barnyard grass, the Eleusinc coracana, which 

 produces heavy crops of a millet-like grain much relished by 

 poultry, and also by stock. This grass, largely grown in 

 Egypt, has succeeded well all over the ground whose alkali 

 content ranges up to 12,000 pounds per acre, but failed where 

 the salts reached 38,840 pounds in the surface foot. Next to 

 this, in point of success, were the pearl millet (Pennisctum 

 typhoideum) and teosinte, Hungarian brome grass, and Japan- 

 ese millet, on land containing about 9,000 pounds of (chiefly 

 " white ") salts per acre. 



Other Herbaceous Crops. Legumes. Both the natural 

 growth of alkali lands and experimental tests seem to show 

 that this entire family (peas, beans, clovers, etc.) are among 

 the more sensitive and least available wherever black alkali 

 exists; while fairly tolerant of the white (neutral) salts. Ap- 

 parently a very little salsoda suffices to destroy the tubercle- 

 forming organisms that are so important a medium of nitro- 

 gen-nutrition in these plants. Excepting the melilots, alfalfa 

 with its hard, stout and long taproot, seems to resist best of all 

 these plants. 



As a general thing, taprooted plants, when once established, resist 

 best, for the obvious reason that the main mass of their feeding roots 

 reaches below the danger level. Another favoring condition, already 

 alluded to, is heavy foliage and consequent shading of the ground ; 

 alfalfa happens to combine both of these advantages. There has been 

 some difficulty in obtaining a full stand of alfalfa in the.portion of the 

 Chino substation tract containing from 4000 to 6000 pounds of (largely 

 black) alkali salts per acre ; but once obtained, it has done very well. 



The only other plant of this family that succeeds well on 

 this land, and even (at Tulare) on soil considerably stronger 



