UTAH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 87 
ALKALI WATER FOR IRRIGATION. 
BY F. S. HARRIS AND N. I. BUTT. 
With the increasing demand for agricultural pro- 
ducts, there is need for the reclamation of more of the 
present unproductive lands. Although Utah now irri- 
gates more than a million acres, perhaps double this area 
could be irrigated if all of the present supply of water 
could be utilized. On account of alkali troubles which 
developed soon after water was applied, several irriga- 
tion projects have failed even though they had an abund- 
ance of water. Some soils contain quantities of alkali 
which might be expected to give trouble as soon as irri- 
gation is commenced and time is allowed for the salts to 
be dissolved and accumulated at the surface of the soil 
by evaporation. There are some ruined soils, however, 
which originally did not contain sufficient alkali to be 
troublesome, but have been contaminated from other 
sources. 
Seepage water often percolates from higher lands 
bringing disastrous quantities of alkali. Irrigation 
water, which in many cases contains considerable seep- 
age, sometimes holds sufficient alkali to make the land 
sterile in a very few years. Often irrigation streams 
carrying far too little alkali salts to be noticed by tast- 
ing, hold so much that without adequate precaution in 
their use, the toil in reclaiming the land could easily be 
wasted before profitable cultivation began.. Millions of 
acres of land in India, the Euphrates Valley, and Africa 
have been made unproductive by alkali accumulation. 
It is, therefore, important that we avoid the use of water 
likely to throw out of use land which, though unused at 
present, may be needed in the future. 
Since the waters causing injury to lands in other 
parts of the country have been somewhat carefully 
studied, we know in a general way the approximate 
quantities of alkali that may be present without fear of 
damage to the soil. The limits which have been set by 
the various investigators, however, vary through a wide 
