CHAPTER VIII 



ALKALI LANDS 

 CHARACTERISTICS OF ALKALI LANDS 



THE use of the term "alkali lands," as commonly 

 employed, has quite a loose or wide application. Hil- 

 gard states that in California the term is applied 

 almost indiscriminately to all lands whose soils con- 

 tain unusual amounts of soluble salts, so that during 

 the dry season or after irrigation the surface becomes 

 more or less white with the deposits left by the evapo- 

 ration of the capillary waters. Throughout much of 

 Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and other states lying 

 within the glaciated areas of this country, there are 

 black marsh soils which, after being drained and 

 tilled, come to acquire in spots a deposit of white 

 salts at the surface whenever there is much evapo- 

 ration from the soil, and these are frequently spoken 

 of as "alkali spots." Where these salts are well 

 marked in character, crops are killed out entirely, or 

 the growth is stunted much as is true of the black 

 alkali spots of arid regions. On the rice fields of 

 South Carolina, there appear during the dry stage 

 of growth of the crop "alum spots," as they are there 

 called, upon which the rice may die out or be of 

 inferior quality. Then, too, on the margins of the 



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