62 The: Colorado Expe;rime:nt Station. 
cellar under the house is stated to be about eight feet deep in which 
water rises and falls with the seasons. From this we found that 
at the lower edge of this very bad area the water plane was almost 
exactly six feet below the surface, at the end of the irrigating 
season. The cellar was dry when dug, now six years ago. 
This orchard has taught us quite a number of things. We 
have been able to observe the death of the trees in a zone at the 
edge of this bad area just as the brown color extended. There was 
no trouble during the thirteen years of the life of the trees when 
no ‘‘black alkali” appeared, but as soon as this “black alkali” ap¬ 
peared the trees began to die; some of them began to burn and 
died within two weeks. From one-half to three-fourths of an acre 
died between August 18 and October 29, 1910, while other trees 
not more than twenty-five feet away remained in fine condition. In 
this case the trouble continued to spread till the end of the season. 
I did not learn whether there was any relation between the times 
of irrigation and the virulence of the attack on the trees and the 
rate of their dying. The manager has recently written to me 
that he irrigated this orchard about the first of December, 1910 , 
and that the surface of the ground became intensely brown imme¬ 
diately after the application of the water even at the north end. 
A hole dug just north of this orchard encountered a little water 
at four and a half feet, but the shale beneath this, to a depth of 
five feet more was entirely dry. A tile drain has been laid the 
entire length of the north side, varying from four to six feet in 
depth. My information is, that it is entirely dry. 
The water is not in the irrigating ditch long enough, during 
the season, to affect the area in question. I asked the manager of 
this orchard repeatedly in regard to the possibility of the trouble 
being due to water and he as often repeated his answer that he 
could not believe it to be due to this cause. The depth of the water 
table, as shown by the water in the cellar, six feet, with very little 
variation throughout the year, supported his view. The water 
table, as indicated by the water in this cellar on December 28, 1910, 
was seven feet two inches, giving us a variation of fourteen inches 
for the year. The accompanying plates from photographs kindly 
furnished me by Professor Sackett, illustrate the condition of the 
land and orchard October 29, 1910. Fig. 1 indicates the upper 
and Fig. 2 the lower figure in the plate. Plate V shows the 
condition of a Paragon tree which had not been affected at the 
time the photograph was taken while Fig. 2, Plate III, shows a tree 
which died between August 18 and October 29. The tree at 
the extreme right of Fig. 2, Plate V is the next tree immediately 
east of Fig. 1, same Plate. Fig. 1, Plate V shows no brown areas 
while Fig 2 shows them very well. Fig. 2, Plate III shows ? 
tree killed since August 18 and entirely denuded of leaves. The 
