The Ground Water. 
35 
parts per million; in B, where the conditions of cultivation were 
good, but where we had trouble to obtain a good stand of plants 
and the ground water was generally the most heavily laden with 
total solids, the nitric acid was the highest, reaching 162 parts per 
million; in C, a section which is ouite wet and yields incrustations, 
but in a less degree than A, the nitric acid falls to 55 parts per 
million, but it again rises to 86 parts per million in D, which sec¬ 
tion is in good condition and whose surface is always from 3.5 to 
6 feet above the water table. 
§ 98. We do not find nitric acid abundant in any portion of 
the plot in the second two inches, it being present in the sample 
from section A as a trace only, but it increases as the ground rises 
to the westward until it reaches a maximum of 9.3 parts per million 
in D. 
§ 99. At the close of the season of 1897, 23 days before our 
crop was harvested, the ground water from the wells showed a range 
of total solids from 2561 to 3986 parts per million, while the nitric 
acid ranged from 4 to 7.8 parts. A sample of water taken from a 
newly made opening penetrating the gravel and quite near to the 
Town Ditch, an irrigating ditch, showed the presence of 2187 parts 
total solids and 11.34 parts of nitric acid per million. The water 
plane was low at the time these samples were taken. 
§ 100. On the 16th of May, 1898, the level of the ground 
water was not especially high, but the total solids were excep¬ 
tionally so, and the nitric acid in the waters of wells A and C was 
unprecedentedly high, 41 and 68 parts per million respectively, 
but this was not so in the case of wells B and D, which carried 5.0 
and 2.7 parts respectively. From this date, May 16th, the nitric 
acid fell continuously till June 6th, when owing to a rainfall there 
was a change in the soil conditions, followed by an increase of nitric 
acid in wells A and D and by a decrease of it in wells B and C. 
From this time, June 6th, till July 14th, the water table gradually 
fell and so did the quantity of nitric acid present; the surface of the 
ground having become somewhat dry in the meantime. The 
plot received an irrigation on July 14th and the samples of 
water taken on the following day showed an increase in the 
amount of nitric acid present; but this increase was not uniform 
in the different wells. The water plane was raised according to 
the position of the wells, and the amount of water we were able 
to bring on the surrounding section, which varied, as we had 
only a scanty supply of water at our disposal. The effects of this 
irrigation upon the total solids held by the waters was as marked 
as any that I have had the opportunity of observing. Wells A, B 
and C rose from 28.0000, 29.2856 and 16.1429 parts per thousand 
on the 8th to 58.8571, 44.8571, and 58.1429 parts per thousand 
