2 BULLETIN 135, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
The land in the affected area is somewhat lower than the surround- 
ing lands of the project and is generally rather level, being broken 
only occasionally by slight depressions or natural-drainage waste ways. 
Very little leveling is necessary in preparing the land for irrigation. 
The natural vegetation is a low, scattering growth of scrub sage and 
saitbush and a very little grass. Throughout the entire area are 
many small spots entirely barren of vegetation. The soil on these 
barren spots bakes rapidly and becomes very hard after rains. 
The lower layers of the soil between the upper foot or two and the 
underlying gravel contain very little moisture before irrigation 
water is applied or before they are affected by the rise of ground 
water. The ground water at the time this work was started in 1910 
was 6 to 8 feet below the surface and occurred only in the underlying 
gravel. This gravel stratum is apparently broken or contains so 
much fine material that the water entering the soil from the irriga- 
tion of higher lands can not be carried off as rapidly as it enters the 
soil, and there has been a consequent rise of the ground water over 
this area during the past two years. It rose during the season of 
1913 to within about 3 feet of the surface. 
It appears that the problem involved in the reclamation of this 
land is the opening up of the surface soil so as to make possible the 
leaching out of the alkali salts either by the application of irrigation 
water or by the rainfall. 
This soil is also very deficient in vegetable matter, and it appeared 
that the addition of humus by plowing under green-manure crops 
would be one of the best means of improving the physical condition 
of the soil. Rye appeared to be the best crop for this purpose, as 
it is able to produce a crop under rather adverse conditions. In the 
fall of 1910 about 12 acres of the land on this tract were broken up 
and planted to winter rye. This land lies in two fields. Field M-I 
contains about 5 acres and field M-II about 7 acres. The rye crop 
made a fair though rather irregular growth, and was plowed under 
in June, 1911, when the plants were heading. On the 7-acre field 
and on a part of the 5-acre field this treatment was repeated in 1912. 
The second year's crop of rye was much heavier and more uniform 
than the first. Each year after plowing the rye under, the land was 
cultivated frequently after rains, to maintain a mulch and to prevent 
the crusting of the surface. By this method the tilth of the soil 
appeared to be much improved, and the amount of salt in the surface 
soil, as shown by determinations made at different dates, was greatly 
decreased. The land on which the green-manure treatment had 
been applied for two years was cropped to winter wheat in 1913. 
The wheat on field M-II yielded 28.7 bushels per acre and that on 
field M-I 35 bushels per acre. Trials of alfalfa and sugar beets 
were also made in 1913 on small plats that had received the green- 
