14 
Colorado Experiment Station 
ANAIiYSIS OF EFFLORESCED SALTS, Laboratory No. 2602 
Water soluble equaled 13.36 percent of the air-dried soil. 
Percent 
Calcic sulfate 26.445 
Magnesic sulfate 25.770 
Sodic sulfate 42.040 
Potassic chlorid 2.263 
Sodic nitrate 3.482 
100.000 
This analysis shows that the efflorescence on this soil at 
the time we collected the sample, 12 February, 1920, was essen- 
tially our ordinary alkali, a mixture of sulfates in which sodic 
sulfate predominated, while calcic and magnesic sulfates were 
present in about equal quantities; they made up one-half of 
the total. The small amount of nitrates probably belonged to 
tlie soil which constituted 86.0 percent of the sample as it was 
gathered. This and also the following sample was collected on 
the flank of a little knoll in a field that is rapidly becoming vei*y 
bad. A portion of the field, only a little lower than that where 
we collected these samples, has become as good as unproductive 
within the past three years. 
The soil of the field where the following sample was taken 
did not show very much efflorescence and beets had grown there 
in 1919, but the crop a]ipeared to have been almost a complete 
failure. The soil was slightly mealy. 
ANALYSIS OF WATER-SOLUBLE, SOIL Laboratory' No. 2603 
Water-soluble equaled 6.733 percent of soil. 
Percent 
Calcic sulfate . . 
Magnesic sulfate 
Potassic sulfate 
Sodic sulfate . . . 
Sodic chlorid . . . 
Sodic nitrate . . , 
Excess sodic oxid 
22.720 
37.467 
1.556 
17.518 
9.849 
10.835 
0.046 
100.000 
The last two samples were taken close together, the alkali , 
formed a white covering on the ground when it was collected, | 
but the ground where the soil sample was taken showed no | 
efflorescence^— only a little mealiness on the surface. The dis- 
tance between the two lines on which the respective samples ; 
were taken was 25 feet. The differences in the analyses are j 
very marked. Sodic sulfate makes up 42.0 percent of the | 
effloresced alkali and only 17.5 iiercent of the soil extract. While | 
magnesic sulfate makes up 87.5 percent of the soil extract and 
25.8 percent of the alkali. The alkakli as it was gathered con- 
sisted of 86.0 percent of soil, still it carried only 3.5 percent 
