ALKALIS IN COLORADO 
(Including Nitrates) 
By W. P. HEADDEN 
One of the things often spoken of as characteristic of the western 
plains is the occurrence of alkali. I think that this used to find more 
frequent mention than it does now. This is perhaps easily explicable in 
that travelers do not now have to depend upon surface waters for drink¬ 
ing purposes, nor plod their way slowly through an unfamiliar country 
subjected to all the inconveniences of the early day travel. On the con¬ 
trary, the stranger now enjoys all the comforts of modern travel, mostly 
through succeeding reaches of well settled and cultivated country. For 
all of this the question of alkali is often presented to the agriculturist 
as one of serious import and still unsettled. 
I recall an incident that happened some years ago which illustrates 
how striking the appearance of our alkali-covered areas may be to those 
unaccustomed to them. The Colorado and Southern train was 
approaching the town of Loveland and such an area suddenly came into 
view. One of the children in an eastern family that had never been west 
before cried out, “Oh papa! See the snow!” This was in spite of a 
prevailing high temperature and of the fact that we had passed field 
after field of grain ready for harvest or already in shock. The impres¬ 
sion may be largely one of surprise but the reasoning is that a thing so 
unusual as this must be injurious. This in the past has been not only 
the reasoning of the individual, but it very generally has been declar¬ 
ed to be a fact that alkalis are injurious. 
This opinion is in both the public mind and in the scientific views 
on this subject. I have in the outset no thesis to prove. When I began 
the study of the subject I participated in the prevailing public opinion 
on the injurious nature of these salts. 
ALKALI GENERAL IN COLORADO SOILS 
The occurrence of alkali in Colorado soils is practically universal 
The dififerences in the amounts in different places may be considerable, 
but generally it is a question of visibility and absolute quantity and not 
of its presence. There are not many places where one can collect 
samples of soil that can be truthfully said to be free from alkali and in 
saying this I do not mean to use any fine distinction in regard to the 
amount of soluble salts remaining from those formed by the decomposi¬ 
tion of the minerals forming the big mass of the soil. I do not even 
have in mind any minimum amount of soluble salts that must be present 
before we shall consider the soil as carrying alkalis. In the case of 
