* 
4 The: Colorado Experiment Station. 
The relation of seepage to these occurrences of nitre was also 
discussed and the statement was made that the nitre is associated 
with a. rather uniform and abundant supply of moisture but that in 
really wet soils it does not appear; on the other hand, at least one 
instance of its occurrence in well drained land was specifically 
mentioned and described, as follows: “A small piece of land, a 
sandy loam, near and some 12 or 15 feet above the river has a 
dark brown color and has not been productive for several years. 
This land has received good cultivation, the application of much 
barnyard manure and excessive irrigation in the hope that the 
“black alkali” would be washed out.” In describing Orchard No. 
4, I stated that this land is quite high and slopes to the west and 
south. Again I mention its occurring on hillsides, which was 
done to convey to the mind of the reader that the locations in which 
we meet these occurrences are so varied that it would be doing 
violence to the facts to attribute it to seepage. I mentioned the 
muddy condition of the soil in three cases which I discussed and 
gave the height of the water table, if it could properly be called 
such, as five and one-half or six feet, a perfectly safe depth for all 
ordinary vegetation. This question was investigated at various 
seasons of the year without results, materially contributing toward 
a solution of the problem. The very first question suggesting 
itself in connection with the troubles described in Bulletin 155, and 
one which every intelligent ranchman investigates, is the question 
of water and if the solution of the difficulties were to be found 
in an excess of water in the soil the ranchmen themselves would 
long since have found it out, but even in cases in which I have 
thought it possible or even probable that the soil water might be 
too abundant, I have been informed by persons of very different 
character that the water plane varied from 12 to 16 or more feet 
throughout a whole section of country. These people had dug 
cisterns and wells and made other excavations, and their informa¬ 
tion on this subject is fairly reliable. I am convinced that the 
muddy condition of the three soils described is rather a result of the 
presence of the nitre than a cause of the trouble. 
Bulletin 160 is more than a popular restatement of the facts 
of Bulletin 155, in that it gives our observations upon the orchards 
from September of 1909 till May of 1910, which gave us no reason 
for modifying any view expressed in Bulletin 155, except to intimate 
rather strongly, that the seriousness of the problem was even 
greater than had been suggested in Bulletin 155. 
In describing the condition of the land I again state more 
strongly than before: “This condition then is not restricted to 
low lands; 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.” In order to convey a 
