270 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
[a^OL. XIII. 
round the farms. These are fitted with flood-gates closed by the rise of the tide 
and opening on its fall. The salt in the soil is washed out by the fresh water of 
the streams falling into the bay by a process of sluicing such as I haim described, 
and is run off as the tide falls. In the depression between the coast range and 
the second range of hills artesian Avells can be made, and these were used 
Avhere none of tlie mountain streams were ai’^ailable. An English Company 
Avas working on a salt marsh by the aid of artesian water only ; but it was 
generally considered that it AA'ould not be a success, as the amount of artesian 
Avater was after all only trifling compared Arith the area to be reclaimed. The 
universal opinion in Utah was, that if they once succeeded in covering an 
alkali field with a crop of any kind, the victory Avas won. After the land was 
half cured, they generally covered it with a hai’dy grass, the most approved 
being red-top American grass. Beetroot AA'as also said to groAV w’ell as an early 
crop ; after that Indian-corn, and other crops by degrees. Tuberous crops grow 
Hy manure and culti- Country, and the potatoes are said to be the 
vation. fiest in the world. The last method I shall mention Avas 
that employed by Brother Fenton, an energetic Devonshire farmer. It happened 
to bo impossible for him to get fresh Avater to wash the salt out of his fields, 
and he tried large quantities of manure—20 to 50 tons jAer acre. Bam-yard 
manure was considered the best, and as his great object was to keep the 
surface from the sun, Avhich drew up the salt, he also used litter to cover it. 
The first crops he covered the ground Avith were the red-top grass and oats, 
and he sowed his crops in Septembei’, so that the ground should be covered 
with vegetation Avhen the alkali would bo appearing. As soon as by this 
means he got his first crop of red Timothy grass, he found he had suc¬ 
ceeded. Mr. Fenton complained that after partly curing one field he ruined 
it by trenching and bringing uja a saline subsoil. His idea Avas that the 
salt was a sort of perspiration of the earth, and, therefore, mostly on the 
surface, and that by tuiming up the subsoil he Avould get a better soil. 
In India it is certainly the ease that a short distance below the surface less 
reh is found. It may be different in a closed basin like that of Utah, where 
the subsoil also may become saturated with salt. Utah city is partly situ¬ 
ated on a bench at the base of the Wasatch hills adjoining the plain, and at 
first the farms surrounding it Avore made on the ground that was not saline. 
About one-fourth of the land under cultivation was salt, and three-fourths of 
this had been cured by sheer cultivation, much in the way I have described in 
the case of Mr. Fenton’s farm. For the other fourth, sluicing and irrigation had 
been available. The cultivation of saline soils is also carried out in other settle¬ 
ments. In most old-settled countries, and especially in India, agriculturists are 
very conservative in following the practices of their forefathers. In America, 
where the population is composed of emigrants from all countries, every man 
brings the methods used in his OAvn, and all sorts of ti-ials are made and the 
fittest survives. Those are made in a new countiy under neAv circumstances, 
and people are not bound by tratlitional customs, but arc anxious to try wliat- 
ever succeeds in the hands of others, and also make experiments according to 
their own ideas. These may bo crude, but still a vast number of experiments 
