94 HEARINGS BEFORE COMMITTEE ON AGRICULTURE. 
if anything comes up and we want to communicate with the people of 
that locality, if we want to get ideas inculcated in the minds of the 
people, we will know how to reach them. 
Mr. Wricut. My question was prompted by the fact that you men- 
tioned. while ago that you put them in a position to absorb knowledge 
regarding the raising of ditferent crops. 
Mr. Wurryey. In our tobacco work that is just what we do. We 
go right tothe people and live with them. In our demonstration 
work we go right with the people. 
Mr. Lamp. And they catch on directly? 
Mr. Wuirnry. They catch on. We live right with them and man- 
age their fields, their warehouses, or whatever it may be. They let us 
in very willingly. They tellus to come right inand do what we want. 
They are always exceedingly cordial to work of this kind, provided we 
can give them personal attention. 
The Cuarrman. I believe you could do good work through those 
experiment stations in the line which, ina rough way, I have sug- 
gested, and enliven their interest in this matter of study by employing 
some of their young men and letting them go along with your parties 
and doing, perhaps, the cheapest kind of work and not any of the sci- 
entificwork. It wouldarouse an interest in the matter in these experi- 
ment stations, putting it on the line of a young engineer going out 
with an engineering party. 
Mr. Wuitney. We often have volunteers join us in that way, but 
it always involves us in additional expense for teams and for facilities 
for getting around, and questions of that kind that come up. 
The Cuartrman. I would not increase the number of your own par- 
ties, but you could have one from here and one from the experiment 
stations. 
Mr. Wurtney. We do that toa certain extent in some stations. 
There is a matter I would like to bring before the committee. That 
is our alkali-reclamation work. I said something about ita while ago, 
but I think the committee would be interested to know that the work 
has been highly successful. At Salt Lake City they have 125 square 
miles of alkali land that is absolutely valueless for agricultural pur- 
poses. They have spent enormous sums in trying 
Mr. Bowrz. How many acres did you say? 
Mr. Wuitney. One hundred and twenty-five square miles around 
Salt Lake City. The present value of this land is nominal, and it can 
be purchased for from $5 to $8 anacre. There is some little grazing, 
some soft bushes, but it has no value for agriculture. We have taken 
out a tract of 40 acres in cooperation with the experiment station. 
The basis of the cooperation is this: We will have the use jointly of 
the land for from three to five years donated by the owner, and he 
contributes $500 to the installation of the drain tile. The Bureau of 
Soils then takes hold and frees the land from alkali, and when we 
have got it freed from alkali we turn it over to the experiment station, 
and they are going to see if we have got it free and demonstrate that 
we have by growing crops adapted to the locality. We can not do that 
so well. ‘They are going to do it. 
The Cnarrman. The freeing of soil from alkali is simply a question 
of drainage, is it not? 
Mr. Wurrnry. Simply a question of drainage. We have installed 
a drainage plant there at about $15 an acre. The soil had 24 per cent 
