46 
Colorado Experiment Station 
nate. This in no wise asserts that this plant cannot or does not flour¬ 
ish in other soils. The most vigorous samples of sarcobatus plants 
that I remember having seen were growing at the edge of a kitchen 
garden with which no one could possibly find any fault on account of 
any lack of luxuriant growth. But, I think, that it is true in the sec¬ 
tion of the San Luis Valley land had in mind, that the presence of this 
greasewood indicates a strongly alkaline soil in which sodic carbonate 
forms a relatively large proportion. On a preceding page we have 
given an analysis of the water-soluble portion of such a soil and find 
that sodic carbonate makes up a little better than J4 of the total, while 
in the alkali that effloresced from this soil, about 1/12 of the salts sol¬ 
uble in water was sodic carbonate. 
WHITE ALKALIS NOT INJURIOUS TO CROPS 
My judgment relative to the injurious nature of our white alkalis, 
the efflorescences of which are designated by this name in this State, 
is that they are so good as harmless in any quantities in which they 
actually occur. It is a matter for regret that there has been so much 
said about the injurious effects of these alkalis that there has grown up 
a general belief in their injurious properties. These alkalis in Colorado 
consist usually, of the sulfates of soda, lime and magnesia, usually 
with small quantities of chlorids and carbonates. I have grown beets 
carrying from 14 to 19 percent sugar and yielding from 9 to 19 tons 
per acre on land the top 2 inches of which carried 3.5 percent of water- 
soluble salts. I measured incrustations formed on this land which at¬ 
tained a maximum of more than *4 inch. I have seen so many other 
instances of extremely alkaline land, in so many different sections of 
the State, on which excellent crops were produced, that I am convinced 
after 2/3 years of observation of this particular subject, that our ordi¬ 
nary white alkali is not sufficiently abundant in any of our ordinary 
soils to deserve any serious consideration. I have elsewhere stated, 
apropos to this subject, that on one occasion I measured alkali incrus¬ 
tations 3/16 inch thick under the leaves of beet plants and on digging 
found the ground water within 18 inches of the surface. This crop 
of beets was irrigated with seepage water, carrying 259 grains of 
total solids to the gallon. I was interested to learn what the harvest of 
this crop revealed, and wrote to the officers of the factory which han¬ 
dled the crop. They kindly gave me their record—9 tons per acre 
one year and 10 tons the next, with 16 and 16.5 percent sugar in the re¬ 
spective years. There was more of this alkali land which yielded much 
larger crops and slightly better beets. I saw a crop of wheat grown 
on land that I, at first, thought wholly unfit for wheat-growing^ but 
the yield was 60 bushels per acre. Such facts as these can be dupli¬ 
cated in many sections of the State and are so patent that one cannot 
justly make the unqualified assertion so often met with, that the alka- 
