Part 4.] Center: Note oh Bek or Alkali Soils and Saline IFell loaters. 
269 
29. As regards tlie effect of reclamation, further experiments are also required, 
in order to show how much is due to removal or diffusion of the salts. I esti¬ 
mated the total salt in reclaimed soil and in adjoining reh-ground to the depth 
of 3 feet at two pilaces near Lahore. Equal columns of earth were taken up 
by boring with a tube. The result was negative, as in one case the reclaimed 
soil contained a little less salt than the adjoining reh-ground, and in the othcre 
rather more than a third less. No conclusion of any value can bo drawn except 
from a large number of estimates, the variables affecting each case being also 
taken into account. 
30. The state of porosity of the soil has also a great deal to do with the 
appearance of the efflorescence. Nothing’ is apparently more capricious than the 
Avay it shows itself in one spot of a field and not in another. This may be 
partly due to difference of constitution of the elements of the soil, but there is 
no doubt that another cause must be the facility of capillary evaporation duo to 
the variable mixtures of sand and clay of which tliese alluvial soils are composed. 
This also suggests a question that might be of importance, as to how far reh 
soils could bo im25roved by additions of sand or clay so as to affect their capillary 
action. 
31. I conclude this p)aper with some practical remarks regarding the methods 
Methods of cure dealing with saline efflorescence agi’iculturally; but 
these I wish to bo considered suggestive more than any 
thing else, as I cannot pretend to any experience in that line. When visiting- Utah 
I was very much struck on finding that the saline efflorescences of that basin 
were similar in nature to those I had seen and studied in India. I made en¬ 
quiries into the ideas current on the subject and the methods of reclaiming the 
soils. Brigham Young’s notions of natural philosojohy were both extremely 
simjjle and at the same time shrewd, as would be expected from an uneducated, 
but practical and successful man. He said ; “ There is salt in eA'ery thing. Water 
has salt, plants have salt, and earth has salt; and the Bible tells us that if the 
earth have lost its salt it is useless. A certain quantity of salt is necessary for 
vegetation; in our counti'y we have too much of it, and we get rid of part of 
it.” Ho referred me to Mr. Woodruff, who was Secretary to the Agricultural 
By sluicing and irri- Society, and to some of the best farmers, to see what was 
done. The plans adopted wore the following: A salt 
field was jdoughed and small runlets of fresh water wore sent down the field, 
at short distances apart, washing the soil and running off into the di-ainage of 
the country. Another method Avas to jdough ujJ a field and make a terrace 
I’ound it and then flood it. The water was alloAvcd to soak for some time till it 
had dissolved the salt and yvas then run off. Another plan was to terrace a 
ploughed field and dig a deep trench round it. The field was flooded, and the 
unploughed subsoil being less permeable, the water holding the salt in solution 
filtered into the trench. I observed similar processes carried out on the salt 
marshes roirnd the Bay of San Francisco. This is gradually silting up, and 
surrounding it are miles of low flats impregnated Avith sea salt and groAA'ing 
only saline jilaids. Through these pass shallow delta channels, scoured by the 
rise and fall of the tide. To reclaim this soil, Ioav earth embankments are raised 
G 
