8o The Colorado Experiment Station. 
moisture prevails, but my observations lead me to have little hope 
for immediate and satisfactory results from drainage. In Case 
No. 8 I gave the conditions of the ground and those of adjacent 
lands in some detail for the purpose of showing that these adjacent 
lands do not furnish the nitrates and that the ground water would 
not, even if it flowed into this land, Case No. 8, account for the 
presence of any nitrates as they are not present in this ground 
water, nor yet are they, the nitrates, contained in the white, ordinary 
alkali of the surrounding lands which is essentially a mixture of 
sulfate and chlorid of sodium. 
In regard to drainage, Cases Nos. 8 and 9, light clayey to 
sandy loam soils, with sandier subsoil underlaid by gravel, located 
on the river bank and from 12 to 15 feet higher than the river bed 
present ideal drainage conditions, and yet these cases presented, 
in 1909 and 1910, extreme instances of very high degrees of con¬ 
centration of nitrates with most disastrous results, so far as the 
orchards and crops were concerned. 
The ground water from the adjacent land but also the drain 
water from an adjoining similar soil showed actually less nitrates 
than is often present in good drinking waters, yet there is a very 
rich nitre patch near the river bank east of this drain. We have 
in this connection conclusively shown that such drain water cannot 
be the source of the nitrate. It is easy to suggest various explan¬ 
ations and remedial measures as applied to individual cases, espe¬ 
cially if they are simply suggested explanations without regard to 
a wider range of facts, or suggested remedies never to be taken 
seriously as the basis of acts. The facts in such cases as have 
just been cited do not support these suggestions nor commend 
these remedies. Drainage, for instance, so far is I know, has 
given in these cases mostly disappointing results. Cases Nos. S, 
13, 15, 24 and 25 can all be interpreted in this sense. Apropos to 
this point I may mention the statement of a field agriculturist in 
answer to mv question relative to the general results obtained by 
drainage; his answer was that they were generally more or less 
disappointing. We have cited two instances, Nos. 8 and 9, in 
which nature has made a perfect application of this remedy and it 
proved wholly inadequate to ward off or to mitigate the evil. I 
know of no more intense instance of this trouble than is presented 
in Case No. 9, while Case No. 8 is very bad. In the latter case 
the successive owners have combated the trouble persistently for 
about seven years. They have tried the application of extremely 
large quantities of manure, frequent and thorough cultivation, also, 
frequent and excessive irrigation in the endeavor to wash out what 
they thought to be black alkali. Prior to 1904 there was no 
trouble with this portion of the field; it was as good and as pro¬ 
ductive as the rest of the land, but from that time on it has been 
