12 
Colorado Experiment Station 
A.few results stated in parts to the million will serve to show 
how generally and abundantly this salt occurs in these brown 
artesian waters. 
SODIC CARBONATE IN SOME ARTESIAN WATERS 
Parts Per Million 
Rio Grande water. 14.1 
Bucher Well, 923 feet deep Alamosa. 68.0 
Well near McGinty, shallow. 371.0 
Well north of McGinty, deep. 1229.0 
Well at Mosca, shallow, 1st flow. 318.0 
Well at Mosca, 780 feet deep. 1388.0 
Well between Hooper and Center, 375 feet deep. 79.2 
Well between Hooper and Center, 739 feet deep. 477.0 
Well at Hooper, 1st flow. 371.0 
Well at Hooper, 780 feet deep. 1446.9 
Well near McGinty, 15 feet deep. 236.0 
Sylvester drainage ditch. 228.0 
The water of the Gibson drainage ditch is not rich in total 
solids and carries but little sodic carbonate. Alkali from a claim, 
Harper I think was the claimant’s name, was rich in sodic car¬ 
bonate, as was also an incrustation taken from near the ditch. 
These data are enough to show how rich these brown waters 
and all others in this section are in sodic carbonate compared with 
the Rio Grande water or with the deep artesian water at Alamosa. 
Brown Water Kills Vegetation Because It Contains “Black Alkali” 
These results show that even the drain-water and that of 
shallow wells is rich in sodic carbonate. This sodic carbonate does 
not make the water unpleasant to drink, on the contrary, waters 
carrying only a moderate amount of it are pleasant waters; for 
instance, the waters from the first flow at either Mosca or Hooper 
which carry less than 400 parts per million are agreeable, though 
they taste slightly of sulfur. The water from the 15 -foot well 
near McGinty is very pleasant to drink, though it carries 236 
parts of sodic carbonate to the million. It is a very different 
matter when these waters are applied to the surface of the ground 
or to crops and allowed to evaporate to dryness or the solution to 
become concentrated. When this happens, the crops will not grow 
and the land becomes hard and difficult to handle. Such land 
does not necessarily show any other signs of its bad condition. 
This is the explanation for the fact that this brown water is not 
good for irrigating purposes. This is the reason for its killing 
vegetation. 
I saw a meadow north of Blanca, and about east of McGinty, 
to which some of this brown water had been applied. The vegeta¬ 
tion had been killed, whether it was blue-stem or sedges. The 
