i6 
Colorado Experiment Station 
ANALYSIS OF WHITE ALKALI, Laboratory No. 2605. 
Water-soluble 11.403 percent. 
Calcic sulfate . . . 
Magnesic sulfate 
Potassic sulfate . 
Sodic sulfate . . . . 
Sodic chlorid . . . . 
Sodic nitrate . . . . 
Excess sodic oxid 
Percent 
. 11.563 
. 46.958 
. 4.389 
. 13.320 
. 4.065 
. 18.671 
. 1.034 
100.000 
The following sample was collected only a little way south 
of the preceding and on higher ground which, nevertheless, is 
wet. Why this place should be wet, I do not clearly see. I 
could write out an explanation which would be plausible and 
apparently be consonant with all the facts that we know about 
the place," but I do not believe that it would be a correct ex- 
planation. The fact is that I do not know where the moisture 
in this spot conies from. I do not know the history of this spot, 
whether it has been there always or has appeared within the 
past few years. It is not so bad that the owner has been pre- 
vented from trying to crop it. Durino’ 191^, it nlqnted 
to com and previous to that to beets. The corn did not grow 
l)ut weeds had grown to a height of 6 or < feet on a great deal 
of the ground. 
ANALYSIS WATER-SOLUBLE, SOIL Laboratory No. 2606 
Water-soluble 12.254 percent. 
Percent 
Calcic sulfate . . . . 
Magnesic sulfate 
Magnesic chlorid 
Magnesic nitrate 
Potassic nitrate . 
Sodic nitrate . . . 
Excess sodic oxid 
41.462 
11.731 
9.182 
10.412 
5.239 
18.786 
3.188 
100.000 
It would seem that this land should be easy to drain, lo- 
cated on the flank of a hill. In fact, land only a few hundred 
feet from and lower than it is drained. How bad the nitre- 
]>roblem might be in this land if it were not drained, of course 
I cannot guess, but it is so bad that a part of this land is now 
unproductive. 
The next sample will give an idea of how bad drained land 
may be. There was a drain mnning through this land. The 
sample of soil was taken partly on one side and partly on the 
other side of the partly filled drain trench, and is intended to 
represent the very bad portion of the land. The distance be 
