4 The Colorado Experiment Station 
ally, though not always, associated with this mealy, or, as the people 
often describe it, ashy condition. We sometimes find it, the brown 
color, on sandy soils in which we can find no unusual amount of 
moisture until we get down to a depth of six or seven feet or 
strike gravel. 
It might be inferred from what has been stated, that these 
brown spots, or the condition expressed by this term, occur only 
or mostly in low ground. While they do occur very frequently in 
such ground they are not at all uncommon on high ground. I have 
recently found excellent examples of this brown color on the Col¬ 
lege farm at Fort Collins in land which it would scarcely be pos¬ 
sible to seep, and I know of a number of such occurrences on high 
mesas from 80 to 150 feet above the river bottoms, which lie 
immediately below them. 
Persons acquainted with our soils know that we have some 
conditions which make drainage very difficult if not impossible. 
In some places, it is necessary to run a drain to almost every wet 
spot in a field or meadow in order to drain it. It is not an uncom¬ 
mon experience to find a drain within a few feet of a mud hole 
which has no effect on the latter. I recall opening a partially filled 
underdrain, laid at a depth of about four feet. I found it open and 
some water flowing in it, and yet water was standing on the sur¬ 
face of the ground ten feet away. This water was not due to 
recent rains or irrigation but came from the ground below. A 
gentleman once asked me why his alfalfa was dying, and what he 
should do. I answered: “Drain your land,” to which he responded 
that it was so good as impossible, because one spot in this field 
might be too wet, and the alfalfa perish for the want of water 
within fifteen or twenty feet of it. This man told the truth, im¬ 
probable as it may seem. Some may think that these brown spots 
are associated with bad drainage. This is not true, for while the 
ground is in some cases muddy, as previously stated, the soil in 
which this trouble is met with is more often well drained. I recall 
three instances in which the soil is sandy or silty and underlaid by 
gravel at from five to eight feet. The brown surface soil in each 
of these cases occurs within three hundred feet of the river which 
is from eight to twelve feet below the level of the land; one could 
scarcely find better drainage than this. In two other cases we dug 
holes, in one of which we struck gravel with water at five and a 
half feet; in the other we struck neither gravel nor water at a depth 
of seven feet; both soils were sandy. This condition then is not 
restricted to low land; is not dependent upon the variety of the soil, 
unless it be within very wide limits, and is not due to bad drainage 
though it is often observed in low, moist places. 
The brown spots have often been considered as indicating the 
