October 29, 191 1 "9 



cemed, be greatly modified. Many sections of land on this pro- 

 ject that were almost exclusively covered with this plant have 

 been cleared and ploughed and found immediately productive of 

 alfalfa and grains without the application of gypsum, and before 

 any washing out or underdraining had been done. From obser- 

 vations in the Honey lake region, however, where Dr. Hilgard 

 was familiar with the conditions, we are inclined to believe that 

 the conclusions he comes to in regard to the plant as it occurs 

 there are correct. My contention is that greasewood will some- 

 times grow luxuriantly on lands well adapted for agricultural 

 crops, and that this soil apparently in many in tances contains 

 little or no black alkali. If we were to condemn the lands on 

 the Truckee-Carson project that were producing a luxuriant 

 growth of greasewood, then we would have excluded from entry 

 more than half of the lands which to-day are good farms. There 

 is an excellent field here for the co-operation of a botanist and 

 chemist in the study of the relationship of this plant to the soil. 



Some of the other plants mentioned can not always be con- 

 sidered as alkali indicators. The salt grass, Distich/is spicata, 

 blue weed, Heliotropium spathulatum, and the iodine weeds, 

 Dondia diffusa and D. Torreyana, so far as the writer has ob- 

 served, are always to be found where there is more or less alkali 

 in the soil, but in the case of poverty weed, Iva axillaris, it is 

 more a case of moisture than alkali, as it occurs in other parts 

 of the state on our best sage brush lands. The presence of many 

 of the species of saltbushes Atriplex, and the rabbitbrushes, 

 Chrysothamnus, need not cause any anxiety to the homesteader 

 in the growing of crops. The shad scale, A triplex canescens, is 

 generally found on soil of good quality. 



There are large areas in the vicinity of Stillwater covered 

 exclusively with a large saltbush, Atriblex Torreyi, and difficult 

 to penetrate, the shrubs reaching beyond one's shoulders. Here 

 quail are abundant and find a comparatively safe retreat. This 

 land appears to be excellent in quality, and although somewhat 

 alkaline when ploughed up, has produced good crops of wheat. 



It is in the region along the borders of the sloughs, from 

 Stillwater to the Carson sink, that we find true alkali indicator 



