BULLETIN OF THE 



B 



No. 135 



Contribution from the Bureau of Plant Industry, Wm. A. Taylor, Chief 

 September 10, 1914. 



EXPERIMENTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF CROPS 

 ON ALKALI LAND ON THE HUNTLEY RECLAMA- 

 TION PROJECT, MONTANA. 



By Dan Hansen, 

 Farm Superintendent, Office of Western Irrigation Agriculture. 



INTRODUCTION. 



On the Huntley Reclamation Project in Montana there is a large 

 area, comprising as much as 6,000 or 7,000 acres, or somewhat less 

 than one-fourth of the area of the project, in which much of the land 

 contains an excess of salt or alkali. There is, of course, much varia- 

 tion in the salt content of this land, but on all of this portion of the 

 project there has been more or less difficulty in getting good results 

 with crops. This salt, which is made up largely of sulphates of soda 

 and lime, has been derived from the weathering of the underlying 

 shale and from leaching from the shale beds which protrude from the 

 higher lands south of the irrigated tract. 



Soon after the project was opened to settlement in 1907 it became 

 apparent that some special methods would be required to bring these 

 salty lands into full production. In 1909 the Department of .Agri- 

 culture established an experiment farm on the Huntley project near 

 the town site of Osborn. At this point the salt content of the soil is 

 not excessive. In order to meet the demand for information as to 

 the best method for reclaiming the salty land, operations were begun 

 in the autumn of 1910 on a tract of 40 acres near the town site of 

 Worden, 4 miles east of the experiment farm. This Worden tract, 

 as it is called, is situated near the center of the badly affected area 

 and is fairly representative of that area. 



The surface soil on this tract is a very heavy impervious clay con- 

 taining alkali salts in amounts that are not tolerated by most crop 

 plants. The physical character of the soil is such as to prevent 

 natural leaching, and there has been an accumulation of the salty 

 in the surface soil. Underlying the surface soil, at depths varying 

 from 5 to 8 feet, is a stratum of sand and gravel. 

 52602°— Bull. 135—14 1 



