20 
The Colorado Experiment Station 
surrounded by beet tops of very luxuriant growth. See Plate V. 
The bare ground was mealy and excessively rich in nitric acid or ni¬ 
trates. We must defer further statements concerning this till we 
have done more work. 
Our Laboratory No. 588 is a very alkaline soil collected in an 
old orchard. The soil is a red mesa soil, grows alfalfa, potatoes, 
wheat, etc., well. The section is in very bad condition and seeped 
though the mesa is high above the river. The surface of the mesa 
makes this possible. The water soluble in this soil was 6.65 per 
cent. 
ANALYSIS XX. 
WATER SOLUBLE PORTION. Laboratory No. 588. 
Per Cent. 
Calcic Sulfate . 20.169 
Magnesic Sulfate . 6.585 
- Sodic Sulfate . 38.872 
Sodic Chlorid . 23.751 
Sodic Nitrate . 4.006 
Potassic Nitrate . 1.740 
Sodic Silicate . 0.539 
Loss (water, organic matter, etc.) . 4.338 
100.000 
The nitrates correspond to 0.382 per cent of this soil. 
The next sample is Laboratory No. 595, and was gathered as 
a sample of alkali. The spot was quite destitute of vegetation ex¬ 
cept for the presence of a few greasewood, sarcobatus plants, and a 
few surviving alfalfa plants. I have visited this place twice since this 
sample was collected to observe whether the spot is increasing in 
size. I found this to be the case. Only so much of the soil was 
taken as was necessary to get a fair sample of the surface alkali, 
perhaps an inch. This was a new locality for alkali, so far as my 
record was concerned and the sample was taken without any regard 
to the presence or absence of nitrates; it was collected in 1907. 
ANALYSIS XXI. 
ALKALI. Laboratory No. 595. 
Calcic Sulfate . 
Magnesic Sulfate . 
Sodic Sulfate . 
Sodic Chlorid . 
Sodic Silicate . 
Sodic Nitrate . 
Loss (water, organic matter, etc.) 
Per Cent. 
9.102 
8.076 
. 56.254 
. 22.609 
0.308 
2.771 
0.880 
100.000 
The question of the relation of the greasewood to the alkali 
question, sodic carbonate in particular, has been discussed some¬ 
what by Prof. Hilgard and others. The association of this plant 
with the last sample suggests the question whether it might have 
anything to do with the appearance of the nitric acid in this alkali. 
