8 The: Colorado Experiment Station 
not conclusive that nitrates might have been present in sufficient 
quantity to have caused the poor growth of the barley. 
The explanation for the barren condition of these spots seems 
plain after the analysis of the surface portion of one of them re¬ 
vealed the presence of a little more than 5.5 per cent of nitrates. 
The suggestion that nitrates might have injured the barley seemed 
at first almost absurd but the fact that a few grams of earth taken 
from the surface of the field contained nitrates enough to give a 
strong reaction for nitric acid with ferrous sulfate removed the 
absurdity of the idea and indicated that it might have been the case. 
Complaints of brown spots “on which nothing will grow” have 
been common, more so of late years than formerly. This may mean 
that the spots are becoming more common or that the land having 
increased in value more attention is paid to them. The former is 
probably the case as the complaints are coming from different 
places and often state that alfalfa, for instance, is dying in spots. 
The case of a young orchard of 20 acres presents many inter¬ 
esting points. The trees were first set in 1906, in the spring of 
1907 many of them were reset especially in a strip beginning at the 
N. E. corner and running almost directly southwest through the 
orchard. These trees likewise died and this strip is in no better con¬ 
dition now than it was then. The surface of the ground was brown, 
not only had the trees died, but all sorts of vegetation. The ground 
was bare and has continued in this condition till the present time. 
The surface presented no other points indicative of any abnormal 
condition, i. e., than the brown color and its total unproductiveness. 
Had this soil been plowed and harrowed, no one, however proficient 
in judging of land, even of alkali lands, would for a moment have 
suspected that this was other than a very desirable piece of land. 
I have been on this land and could scarcely believe the things that 
I knew to be facts. The land had been recently disced and it was 
only by looking rather closely for the signs which I had recognized 
as suggestive that I could convince myself that the trouble had not 
disappeared. The one important fact that remained was the pres¬ 
ence of dead trees. The death of these trees was not due to neglect 
or abuse or the lack of any care that good judgment dictated 
might be needed to make them grow. There was but little or no 
efflorescence on the surface. There was in some spots a little 
incrustation, very slight, but this was brown rather than white. For 
the sake of convenience the surface soil on which this occurred is 
designated in my notes as efflorescence on brown spot. This spot 
was barren. There was no free water at a depth of 2^ feet. But 
below this point the ground was very wet and one could push an 
auger down for several feet without turning it. This condition 
