Drainage the Ultimate Remedy for Alkali 289 



attention being paid to freeing the soil from the ac- 

 cumulation of alkalies, these salts have been concen- 

 trated to so serious an extent that already many acres 

 have been abandoned. 



The probabilities are that long, long ago the same 

 more rational methods (!) now being practiced had 

 been tried and found inadequate or inapplicable, on 

 account of the accumulation of alkalies which they 

 permitted, and the old irrigators learned to be content 

 with a system which, although more wasteful in some 

 ways, still kept the dreaded alkalies under control. 



It is not improbable that if the full history of 

 many abandoned ancient irrigation systems could be 

 known, it would be found that, not being able to 

 command water sufficient for drainage, or not appreci- 

 ating its need, alkalies were allowed to accumulate 

 until the lands were no longer productive. 



It is a noteworthy fact that the excessive develop- 

 ment of alkalies in India, as well as in Egypt and 

 California, are the results of irrigation practices 

 modern in their origin and modes, and instituted by 

 people lacking in the traditions of the ancient irri- 

 gators, who had worked these same lands for thousands 

 of years before. The alkali lands of today, in their 

 intense form, are of modern origin, due to practices 

 which are evidently inadmissible, and which, in all 

 probability, were known to be so by the people whom 

 our modern civilization has supplanted. 



The subject of Drainage will be discussed in 

 Part II. 



