AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[July, 
be carefully attended to, and of several which 
we have built in this manner we never had 
one that smoked at the wrong place. 
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The Cure of Alkali Lands. 
Upon the plains in our new territories on 
both sides of the Rocky Mountains, there are 
vast tracts of alkaline soils so much impreg¬ 
nated that they yield nothing but sage brush 
and grease wood, or are entirely barren. If 
cultivation is attempted, a white crust soon 
forms upon the surface, and all cultivated 
plants die. There are millions of acres of these 
lands rich in all the elements of plant food, 
hut made worthless by the superabundance of 
alkali. It has been generally supposed that 
these lands could never be made productive. 
The settlers of Utah have been entirely success¬ 
ful in treating these lands, and have done a 
good work for the nation in demonstrating 
their great value. We some months ago visited 
the farm of A. P. Rockwood in the Jordan 
valley, and saw meadows with a thick heavy 
sod, yielding three tons of hay to the acre, 
that were once entirely barren. We also saw 
upon a neighboring farm wheat fields that 
would turn fifty bushels to the acre reclaimed 
by the same process. This matter has attracted 
the attention of the British Government, as 
they have large areas of similar lands in India, 
that they have never been able to make pro¬ 
ductive. The Deseret Agricultural Society 
have given to the public the best methods of 
their farmers in reclaiming these alkaline soils. 
The secret of their success lies in a process of 
leaching the surface of the soil, more or less 
prolonged according to the quantity of alkali 
the soil contains. The field to be treated, of 
any convenient size, is first surrounded with a 
ditch about three feet deep, to carry off any 
water that may be run upon it at the upper 
edge. It is then laid off into strips about two 
rods wide by deep furrows running across the 
slope. The upper side of the furrow is ridged 
high enough to make a shallow pond covering 
the whole surface of the strip. The next 
breadth of the meadow is prepared in the same 
way, and so on until the whole i3 finished. 
Water is then taken from the irrigating ditch 
and turned into the upper basin, and this com¬ 
municates with the lower basins until all are 
flooded. The water is allowed to stand for a 
few days in these shallow pools, when a frothy 
scum rises to the surface. It is then drawn 
off, carrying the scum with it into the out¬ 
side ditch. As this large ditch is lower than 
the surface, the water charged with alkali is 
all the while draining off through the soil. 
The water is kept running over this land sum¬ 
mer and winter, for one or more years, accord¬ 
ing to its character. In some obstinate cases 
it is kept in the leach four or five years, before 
it will bear good crops. In others a single 
season will subdue it. The best crops for the 
first season after treatment are found to be 
castor beans, cotton, summer squash, melons, 
onions, and lucern. A few inches of sand 
spread over the surface is thought to have a 
beneficial influence, facilitating the germina¬ 
tion of seed, and preventing the formation of 
crust. It is agreed by all parties who have re¬ 
claimed these soils that they are the most pro¬ 
ductive lands in the territory, bearing succes¬ 
sive years of cropping without any apparent 
diminution of yield. In some parts of the ter¬ 
ritory they have succeeded in reclaiming these 
lands without irrigation, but this is where there 
is more rain-fall than in the Jordan valley, and 
probably where there is less alkali in the 
soil. A. K. Thurber, of Spanish Fork City, 
mentions a tract in his vicinity formerly worth¬ 
less but now used as an inclosed pasture, 
and producing good feed. He attributes the 
great improvement in its character “ to the 
increased rain-fall of late years, and partly 
to the mixing of the grass with the earth 
through the tramping of cattle, and its becom¬ 
ing thereby decomposed.” There is no doubt 
a large increase in the rain-fall in Utah, and this 
alone in some cases, has made the land pro¬ 
ductive. To facilitate the action of the rain 
the land is plowed up and down the slope that 
the water may run off freely upon the surface. 
The land is flowed frequently, and the particles 
undergo a change as they come in contact 
with the atmosphere, sun, rain, and frost. There 
are large tracts of these reclaimed lands in 
the territory yielding magnificent crops, and 
fine gardens and orchards loaded with fruit. 
-«♦-*- ii % — - - 
Grading Grain in New York. 
The past gradual growth of the export trade 
in grain and its probable continued develop¬ 
ment in even greater ratio in the future, has 
necessitated a change in the method of hand¬ 
ling the immense quantities yearly arriving at 
the port of New York, so that it may be trans¬ 
ferred to ships with greater economy. Various 
propositions have been discussed, and vast 
warehouses and elevators, in which grain may 
be stored and to which ships may be brought 
to receive cargoes, have been contemplated, 
and a bill known as the Gardiner Warehouse 
bill was introduced into the legislature of New 
York for the purpose of authorizing their con¬ 
struction. Many serious objections, however, 
existed to this gigantic plan, both on the score 
of expense and convenience, and a very sim¬ 
ple and inexpensive mode of storage of grain 
while it is awaiting shipping, has been proposed 
in its place by the merchants of the Produce 
Exchange. By this plan the grain will be 
stored upon the boats in which it arrives, or 
into which it will be transferred from the cars. 
The grain will be graded upon its arrival, and 
receipts given for it which will guarantee to 
deliver not the identical grain but the same 
quantity and grade which has been received. 
The identity of the grain received will, of 
course, be lost, but by the method of grading 
proposed, it will be in the same position ex¬ 
actly as so many dollar bills paid into a bank; 
while the same bills can never be drawn out 
again, yet an equal number of similar value 
may be procured on presenting a check. The 
warehouse receipt will take the place of the 
check, and will be a negotiable paper which 
can be sold or bought or transferred by indorse¬ 
ment, calling for so many bushels of grain of 
such a grade. We can not see that this plan 
is different in any way from the warehousing 
system in Chicago or Milwaukee, excepting 
that the grain is stored in boats, and is there¬ 
fore much more cheaply stored than in costly 
elevators, and will be much more cheaply 
transferred to the ships or steamers than in 
any other way. Every dollar thus saved, of 
course, comes finally to the farmer who raises 
the grain or to the consumer who eats it. 
Need for Protection. —The old adage 
that “ shelter is feed,” is well exemplified by 
the following statement of what occurred in 
southern Kansas during last winter. The 
quantity of Texan stock wintered in that dis¬ 
trict was greater than ever before. Feed was 
plentiful under ordinary circumstances; but the 
winter was open with frequent long-continued 
rains, and the cattle utterly without shelter and 
chilled to the bone refused to feed or trampled 
their fodder into the mud and wasted it. 
Strong three-year-old steers lay down in the 
mud and never rose again. Out of one herd of 
127 head only one was left alive. Many large 
herds lost 20 per cent, one herd of 140 lost 80, 
and green Texan stock, less hardy than the ac¬ 
climated cattle, suffered more than others. The 
rudest shelter would have saved these cattle. 
With dry coats they will stand even unusual 
cold, but a cold rain quickly subdues them. 
The losses of last winter would have paid for 
substantial shelters which would last many 
years, and prairie sods and coarse hay, with a 
few poles, would cheaply furnish such shel¬ 
ters. We have frequently spoken of the neces¬ 
sity for shelters for cattle on the plains, and the 
moral is so pointedly enforced in this case, that 
it is to be hoped it will be heeded even now, 
while there is ample time to make every prepa¬ 
ration for the needs of the coming winter. We 
have heard of cattle being “ in lifts ” even in the 
Eastern states the past spring, and this means 
simply exposure and starvation. Humanity to 
our stock is a virtue, and a virtue which is its 
own reward in a pecuniary sense as well as 
every other way. 
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Sheep as a Cleansing Crop. 
How to clear our pastures of brush and 
weeds is a very important question in all our 
grazing districts. As a matter of fact, upon 
most dairy farms it requires the utmost vigi¬ 
lance and considerable expense annually in 
cutting brush to keep them clean. The grazing 
of cows and young cattle alone will not clean 
the land from brush and weeds. Patches of 
briars, whortleberry, sweet fern, hazel-nuts, 
scrub-oak, or other brush spring up, and spread 
year by year until the grass is crowded out, 
and the land is covered with a young growth 
of forest-trees. In many of the older states 
there are large tracts of land now covered with 
timber, that forty years ago were in pasture. 
In the case of rough, hilly land that can never 
be plowed, this return to forest is often de¬ 
sirable. But a certain portion of every farm 
is needed for pasture, and if animals can be 
substituted for human labor in killing brush 
and weeds, it is exceedingly desirable to know 
it. We recently visited two farms lying side 
by side, with no perceptible difference in the 
quality or moisture of the soil. The pasture 
lands were only separated by a stone fence, 
but something much broader than a fence line 
had separated the management of the two 
farmers. The one pasture had been grazed 
by cattle for a long term of years, and the 
policy had gone to seed in a magnificent 
growth of alders, whortleberry brush, young 
maples, vervain, thistles and golden rod, briars 
and other brush and weeds. There were 
patches of grass in perhaps one quarter of the 
field, where the cows got a scanty living. The 
other pasture, in addition to its cattle, had the 
constant tread of a flock of one hundred and 
sixty sheep, and their hoofs in this case cer¬ 
tainly had been gold. Besides all the wool, 
mutton, and lambs sold from the flock, they 
had paid for their keeping every year in free- 
