20 The Colorado Experiment Station. 
section were wholly derived from such a source there would be 
nitre introduced into the seeped lands with the water unless the 
nitrates were reduced or otherwise removed. This, however, is not 
the case. The seepage in almost every case is made up of the leak¬ 
age from irrigating canals and ditches or from excessive irrigation. 
The lands before being brought under irrigation do not contain 
nitrates or even nitrogen in quantities worthy of note, in fact the 
supply of this element is quite limited. The waters used for irriga¬ 
tion'are taken from our rivers and lesser streams which are supplied 
by the snows which fall in our mountain sections. While there 
may be a few exceptions to this statement, it is in the main cor¬ 
rect, and no exception of any weight, so far as I can recall, applies 
in any measure to any of the lands treated of in Bulletin 155 or 
which will be considered in this. 
I know of no lands anywhere which would be more likely to 
be affected in such a manner than land immediately north and a 
little east of this particular tract, and concerning the seeped or 
water-logged condition of which no question can fairly be enter¬ 
tained. As already stated we encountered water as close as two 
and a half feet of the surface, which fact alone does not prove that 
the ground is necessarily unproductive; but this ground was nearly 
barren. It had been in alfalfa, a little of which was still living at 
the time of which I am writing. The soil was wet and heavily 
charged with the ordinary alkali of the section. Three samples 
of this ground water were taken in November and December of 
1907. The alkali in this immediate section is higher in chlorin 
than is usual. This is one of the places referred to in Bulletin 155 
as especially rich, so rich in chlorin that the salt, sodic chlorid, 
present may possibly be injurious to vegetation. Inasmuch as this 
question has been suggested and as I know of no place more 
unfavorable to my views regarding the subject, I will give analyses 
of soils, of samples of alkali and of the three samples of ground 
waters from this section. They are not from the same spot but 
were taken from places near one another, within one quarter of a 
mile and not more than one half mile from Orchard No. 8. The 
alkali and the soil were taken from land that had at one time been 
cultivated. The rows were still visible and the manure in the rows 
had not yet rotted. The ground was at this time bare but not 
brown and greasy in appearance. I do not know whether any 
thing could have been made to grow on it. or not. No attempt to 
do so has been made at any time during the past three years. The 
surface portion of this soil was extremely rich in alkali. I ob¬ 
served, at the time these samples were taken, in some depressions 
in this field, crystals of sodic sulfate from one and a half to two 
and a half inches long. The soil sample, taken to a depth of one 
foot, yielded 2.45 percent soluble in water. The second and third 
