University of California— College of Agriculture,

AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION,

E. W. HILGARD, Director.

NATURE, VALUE, AND UTILIZATION
OF ALKALI LANDS.

Alkali Spots Before Reclamation. Tulare Experiment Substation.

E. W. HILGARD.

BULLETIN No. 128.

(March, 1900.)

SACRAMENTO:
a. j. johnston, : : : : : superintendent state printing.

1900.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Page.

Occurrence and Characteristics of Alkali Soils 3

How Plants are Injured by Alkali 5

Effects of Irrigation __ 5

Determination of the Distribution of the Alkali Salts _ 6

Composition of Alkali Salts; summary of conclusions 13

Utilization and Reclamation of Alkali Lands . 14

Counteracting Evaporation; Diluting the Alkali Salts ; Chemical Remedies;

Stable Manure and Other Fertilizers _. 14-18

Removing the Salts from the Soil 19

Will it Pay to Reclaim Alkali Lands 20

Crops Suitable for Alkali Lands _ 22

Amount of Salts Compatible with Ordinary Crops. 24

Grasses ; Legumes ; Weeds ; Root Crops ; Textile Plants ; Grapevines ; Citrus

Trees; Deciduous Orchard Trees ; Timber and Shade Trees 24-29

Irrigation with Saline Waters 30

Limits of Saline Contents _ -...._ . 31

Reclaimable and Irreclaimable Alkali Lands as distinguished by their Natural

Vegetation ._ 35

Tussock Grass ; Greasewood ; Dwarf Samphire ; Bushy Samphire ; Saltwort ;

Alkali-Heath; Cressa _ 37-44

Relative Tolerance of the Different Species 44

Total Salt Indicators; Salsoda Indicators; Neutral Salt Indicators 46

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Alkali Spots before Reclamation... Title-page.

Diagrams showing Distribution of Alkali Salts ..7, 8, 10, 11

Wheat on Soil crusted with White Alkali... ._ 17

Alkali Lands in San Joaquin Valley 21

Orange Trees irrigated with Artesian Water 32

Orange Trees irrigated with Alkali Water of Elsinore Lake 33

Alkali Grasses: Tussock Grass; Greasewood; Dwarf Samphire; Bushy Samphire;

Saltwort; Alkali-Heath; Cressa 37-44

THE NATURE, VALUE, AND UTILIZATION OF
ALKALI LANDS.*

By E. W. Hilgaed.

[The continuous and pressing demand for information on alkali lands and their
utilization having exhausted the printed matter heretofore published by this Station
on the subject, it seems best to publish a brief general summary of the results of our
investigations, made during the past twenty years, for the use of farmers and land
owners and the general public. Those desiring more detailed information will find the
record, so far as printed, in the reports of the Station from 1879 to 1898.]

Occurrence and Characteristics of Alkali Soils.

Alkali lands must be pointedly distinguished from the salty lands of
sea margins or marshes, from which they differ in both their origin and
essential nature. Marsh lands derive their salts from sea water that
occasionally overflows them, and the salts which impregnate them are
essentially "sea salts"; that is, common salt, together with bittern,
epsom salt, etc. Very little of what would be useful to vegetation or
desirable as a fertilizer is contained in the salts impregnating such
soils; and they are by no means always intrinsically rich in plant
food, but vary greatly in this respect.

Alkali lands bear no definite relation to the sea; they are mostly
remote from it or from any former sea bed, so that they have sometimes
been designated as "terrestrial salt lands." Their existence is usually
definitely traceable to climatic conditions alone. They are the natural
result of a light rainfall, insufficient to leach out of the land the salts
that always form in it by the progressive weathering of the rock
powder of which all soils largely consist. Where the rainfall is
abundant, that portion of the salts corresponding to "sea salts" is
leached out into the bottom water, and with this passes through
springs and rivulets into the country drainage, to be finally carried to
the ocean. Another portion of the salts formed by weathering, however,
is partially or wholly retained by the soil; it is that portion chiefly
useful as plant-food.

It follows that when, in consequence of insufficient rainfall, all or
most of the salts are retained in the soil, they will contain not only

* Revision of a paper published in the Yearbook of the U. S. Department of Agricul-
ture for 1895, with abstracts from reports and records of the California Experiment
Station.

— 4 —

the ingredients of sea water, but also those useful to plants. In rainy
climates a large portion even of the latter is leached out and carried
away. In extremely arid climates their entire mass remains in the
soils; and, being largely soluble in water, evaporation during the dry
season brings them to the surface, where they may accumulate to such
an extent as to render the growth of ordinary useful vegetation impos-
sible; as is seen in "alkali spots," and sometimes in extensive tracts of
"alkali desert."

In looking over a rainfall map of the globe we see that a very consider-
able portion of the earth's surface has deficient rainfall, the latter term
being commonly meant to imply any annual average less than 20
inches (500 millimeters). The arid region thus defined includes, in
North America, most of the country lying west of the one hundredth
meridian up to the Cascade Mountains, and northward beyond the
line of the United States; southward, it reaches far into Mexico, includ-
ing especially the Mexican plateau. In South America it includes
nearly all the Pacific Slope (Peru and Chile) south to Araucania; and
eastward of the Andes, the greater portion of the plains of western
Brazil and Argentina. In Europe only a small portion of the Mediter-
ranean border is included; but the entire African coast belt opposite,
with the Saharan and Libyan deserts, Egypt, and Arabia are included
therein, as well as a considerable portion of South Africa. In Asia,
Asia Minor, Syria (with Palestine), Mesopotamia, Persia, and north-
western India up to the Ganges, and northward, the great plains or
steppes of central Asia eastward to Mongolia and western China, fall
into the same category; as does also a large portion of the Australian
continent.

Over these vast areas alkali lands occur to a greater or less extent,
the exceptions being the mountain regions and adjacent lands on the
side Exposed to prevailing oceanic winds. It will therefore be seen that
the problem of the utilization of alkali lands for agriculture is not of
local interest only, but is of world-wide importance. It will also be
noted that many of the countries referred to are those in which the
most ancient civilizations have existed in the past, but which at
present, with few exceptions, are occupied by semicivilized people
only. It is doubtless from this cause that the nature of alkali lands
has until now been so little understood that even their essential dis-
tinctness from the sea-border lands has been but lately recognized in
full. Moreover, the great intrinsic fertility of these lands has been
very little appreciated, their repellent aspect causing them to be gen-
erally considered as waste lands.

This aspect is essentially due to their natural vegetation being in
most cases confined to plants useless to man, commonly designated
as " saline vegetation," of which but little is usually relished by

— 5 —

cattle. Notable exceptions to this rule occur in Australia and Africa,
where the " saltbushes " of the former and the " karroo " vegetation of
the latter form valuable pasture grounds. Apart from these, however,
the efforts to find for these lands while in their natural condition, cul-
ture plants generally acceptable, or at least profitable, outside of forage
crops, have not been very successful.

How Plants Are Injured by Alkali.

When we examine plants that have been injured by alkali, we will
usually find that the damage has been done near the base of the trunk,
or root crown; rarely at any considerable depth in the soil itself. In the
case of green herbaceous stems, the bark is found to have turned to a
brownish tinge for half an inch or more, so as to be soft and easily
peeled off. In the case of trees, the rough bark is found to be of a dark,
almost black, tint, and the green layer underneath has, as in the case
of an herbaceous stem, been turned brown to a greater or less extent.
In either case the plant has been practically "girdled," the effect being
aggravated by the diseased sap poisoning, more or less, the whole stem
and roots. The plant may not die, but it will be quite certain to become
unprofitable to the grower.

It is mainly in the case of land very heavily charged with common
salt, as in the marshes bordering the sea or salt lakes, that injury arises
from the direct effects of the salty soil-water upon the feeding roots
themselves. In a few cases the gradual rise of salt water from below,
in consequence of defective drainage, has seriously injured, and even
destroyed, old orange orchards.

The fact that in cultivated land the injury is usually found to occur
near the surface of the soil, concurrently with the well-known fact that
the maximum accumulation of salts at the surface is always found near
the end of the dry season, indicates clearly that this accumulation is
due to evaporation at the surface. The latter is often found covered
with a crust consisting of earth cemented by the crystallized salts, and
later in the season with a layer of whitish dust resulting from the
drying-out of the crust first formed. It is this dust w r hich becomes so
annoying to the inhabitants and travelers in alkali regions, when high
winds prevail, irritating the eyes and nostrils and parching the lips.

Effects of Irrigation.

One of the most annoying and discouraging features of the cultiva-
tion of lands in alkali regions is that, although in their natural
condition they may show but little alkali on their surface, and that
mostly in limited spots, usually somewhat depressed below the general
surface, these spots are found to enlarge rapidly as irrigation is prac-
ticed; and since alkali salts are the symptoms and result of insufficient

— 6 —

rainfall, irrigation is a necessary condition of agriculture wherever
they prevail. Under irrigation, neighboring spots will oftentimes
merge together into one large one, and at times the entire area, once
highly productive and perhaps covered with valuable plantations of
trees or vines, will become incapable of supporting useful growth.
This annoying phenomenon is popularly known as " the rise of the
alkali " in the western United States, but is equally well known in
India and other irrigation regions.

The process by which the salts rise to the surface is the same as that
by which oil rises in a wick. The soil being impregnated with a solution
of the alkali salts, and acting like the wick, the salts naturally remain
behind on the surface as the water evaporates, the process only stopping
when the moisture in the soil is exhausted. We thus not infrequently
find that after an unusually heavy rainfall there follows a heavier accu-
mulation of alkali salts at the surface, while a light shower produces no
perceptible permanent effect. We are thus taught that, within certain
limits, the more water evaporates during the season the heavier will be
the rise of the alkali; provided that the water is not so abundant as to
leach the salts through the soil and subsoil into the subdrainage.

Worst of all, however, is the effect of irrigation ditches laid in sandy
lands (such as are naturally predominant in arid regions), without proper
provision against seepage. The ditch water then gradually fills up the
entire substrata so far as they are permeable, and the water-table rises
from below until it reaches nearly to the ditch level; shallowing the
subsoil, drowning out the deep roots of all vegetation, and bringing close
to the surface the entire mass of alkali salts previously diffused through
many feet of substrata. If this condition is allowed to continue for
some time, alkali salts originally "white" will by a chemical change
become "black" by the formation of carbonate of soda from the glauber
salt; greatly aggravating the injury to vegetation. More than this, if
such swamping is allowed to continue for a number of years, the land
may be permanently injured; so that even after the alkali is removed,
the soil remains inert and unthrifty for years.

Determination of the Distribution of the Alkali Salts.

In order to gain a basis for the possible means of reclaiming alkali
lands, it is evidently necessary to determine by direct observation the
manner in which the salts are distributed in the soils under different
conditions. This can be done by sampling the soil at short intervals of
depth, and leaching out and analyzing each sample separately. While
this involves a great deal of work, it is manifestly the only conclusive
method.

A series of such investigations has been first carried out by the Cali-
fornia Experiment Station during the years 1894 and 1895, with samples

— 7 —

taken in or near the substations
near Tulare and Chino, Cal.,
with the results as given below.
It should be understood that
the alkali in the Tulare region
is mostly of the "black" kind,
that is, consisting largely of car-
bonate of soda, which dissolves
the humus of the soil and thus
gives rise to dark-colored spots
and water-puddles. The soil is
a rather sandy, gray loam (see
Report California Experiment
Station, 1889). On the Chino
tract, on the contrary, the soil
is a close-grained, rather heavy
loam, naturally subirrigated;
the salts are likewise mostly
" black," the sodium carbonate
being about one third of the
whole.

Fig. 1 represents the condition
of the salts in an "alkali spot"
as found at the end of the dry
season at the Tulare substa-
tion. The soil was sampled to
the depth of 2 feet, at intervals
of 3 inches each. The depths
are entered in the vertical line
to the left; the percentages of
the total salts and of each of the
principal ingredients are entered
in decimal fractions of 1 per
cent on horizontal lines running
to the right, as indicated on the
top line of the plate. Broken
lines connecting the data in each
case facilitate the understanding
of the results. It is thus easy
to see that at this time almost
the entire mass of the salts was
accumulated within the first six
inches from the surface, while
lower down the soil contained
so little that few culture plants

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— 9 —

Fig. 2 represents similarly the state of things in a natural soil along-
side of the alkali spot, but in which the native vegetation of brilliant
flowers develops annually without any hindrance from alkali. Samples
were taken from this spot in March, near the end of the wet, and in
September, near the end of the dry, season, and each series fully
analyzed. There was scarcely a noticeable difference in the results
obtained. It is seen in the figure that down to the depth of 15 inches
there was practically no alkali found (0.035%), and it was within these 15
inches of soil that the native plants mostly had their roots and developed
their annual growth. But from that level downward the alkali rapidly
increased, and reached a maximum (0.529%) at about 33 inches, decreas-
ing rapidly thence until, at the end of the fourth foot in depth, there was
no more alkali than within the first foot from the surface. In other
words, the bulk of the salts had accumulated at the greatest depth to
which the annual rainfall (7 inches) ever reaches, forming there a sheet
of tough, intractable clay hardpan. The shallow-rooted native plants
germinated their seeds freely on the alkali-free surface, their roots kept
above the strongly charged subsoil, and through them and the stems
and foliage all the soil moisture was evaporated by the time the plants
died. Thus no alkali was brought up from below by evaporation. The
seeds shed would remain uninjured, and would again germinate the
coming season.

It is thus that the luxuriant vegetation of the San Joaquin plains,
dotted with occasional alkali spots, is maintained, the spots them-
selves being almost always depressions in which the rain water may
gather, and where, in consequence of the increased evaporation, the
noxious salts have risen to the surface and render impossible all but
the most resistant saline growth; particularly when, in consequence of
maceration and fermentation in the soil, the formation of carbonate of
soda (black alkali) has caused the surface to sink and become almost
water-tight.

After several years' cultivation with irrigation on the same land as
in the last figure, a crop of barley 4 feet high was grown on the land.
Investigation proved that here the condition of the soil was intermediate
between the two preceding figures. The irrigation water had dissolved
the alkali of the subsoil, and the abundant evaporation had brought it
nearer the surface; but the shading by the barley crop and the evapo-
ration of the moisture through its roots and leaves had prevented the
salts from reaching the surface in such amounts as to injure the crop,
although the tendency to rise was clearly shown.

Ten feet from this spot was bare alkali ground on which barley had
refused to grow. Its examination proved it to contain a somewhat
larger proportion (one-fifth more) of alkali salts, and in these a larger
relative proportion of carbonate of soda (salsoda). Thus the seed was
mostly destroyed before germination, and of the few seedlings none

— 10

lived beyond the fourth leaf. On the ground represented by Fig. 1,
previous treatment with gypsum had so far diminished the salsoda
that the grain germinated freely, and a very good crop of barley was
harvested there without irrigation. The same season, grain crops were
almost a failure on alkali-free land in the same region.

In connection with this result it should be noted as a general fact

Amounts of Ingredients in 100 of Soil.
O . 02 Q« OS Off SO /2 '¥ /6 /# .20 .22

Fig. 3. Distribution of alkali salts in sandy land.

that alkali lands always retain a certain amount of moisture perceptible
to the hand during the dry season, and that this moisture can be
utilized by crops; so that at times when crops fail on nonalkaline land,
good ones are obtained where a slight taint of alkali exists in the soil.
Striking examples of this fact occur in the Spokane country within the
great bend of the Columbia River, in the State of Washington; and the

— 11

same is illustrated by the luxuriant growth of weeds on the margin of
alkali spots, just beyond the limit of corrosive injury. Actual deter-
mination showed that while a sample of alkali soil containing .54 per
cent of salts absorbed 12.3 per cent of moisture from moist air, the same
soil when leached absorbed only 2.5 per cent — a figure corresponding to
that of sandy upland loams. Investigation at the Tulare substation
during the dry season of 1898 also showed the presence of 15 and 16 per
cent of water, respectively, in strong u white" and " black" alkali soils,
while in adjoining light alkali soils there was but 10 per cent.

In very sandy lands, and particularly when the alkali is "white"
only, the tendency to accumulation near the surface is much less, even

under irrigation.

In the natural condition the salts are in such cases

Amounts of Alkali Salts in 100 or Soil.

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Fig. 4. Distribution of alkali salts in close-texiured soil of the ten-acre tract, near Chino, Cal.

often found quite evenly distributed through soil columns of four feet,
and even more. This is an additional cause of the lesser injuriousness
of "white alkali."

Fig. 3 shows the distribution of the salts as found in a very sandy
area on the Tulare substation grounds. It should be noted that here,
while the general figure representing the distribution is very similar to
that showing the same in a close soil (see Fig. 4) the salts reach down
to over 6 feet, and are at their maximum 18 inches from, instead of at
the surface.

The mode of distribution of alkali salts in the heavier, close-grained
soil of the Chino tract is illustrated in Fig. 4. As has been mentioned,
this land is permanently moist, from a water-table ranging from 5 to 7

— 12 —

feet below the surface in ordinary years. There is therefore no oppor-
tunity for the formation of "alkali hardpan" as in the case of the
Tulare soil; the salts always remain rather near the surface, viz, within
12 to 18 inches. But being in much smaller average amounts than at
Tulare (an average of about 5,300 pounds per acre), quite a copious
natural vegetation of grasses, sunflowers, anc£" verba mansa" covered
the whole surface, save in a few low spots.

A similar mode of distribution of the salts is found in the more clayey
"black adobe" lands of the Great Valley of California. The scanty
rains cannot penetrate these soils to any great depth, so that evapora-
tion will soon bring the salts carried by them back to within a short
distance of the surface. Their accumulation there is frequently indi-
cated by the entire absence of any but the most resistant alkali weeds,
even though the total of salts in the land may not be very great.

While the phenomena of alkali lands as outlined above undoubtedly
represent the vastly predominant conditions on extensive level lands,
yet there are exceptions due to surface conformation, and to the local
existence of sources of alkali salts outside of the soil itself. Such is the
case where salts ooze out of strata cropping out on hillsides, as is the
case at some points in the San Joaquin Valley in California, and in
parts of Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. In such cases the alkali
salts may be most apparent near the foot of the hills, and in light,
well-drained valley lands may disappear altogether before reaching the
valley-trough.

On the other hand, it not infrequently happens that in sloping val-
leys or basins, where the central (lowest) portion receives the salts
leached out of the adjacent hills and valley slopes in consequence
of slow subdrainage, we find belts of greater or less width in which the
alkali impregnation may reach to the depth of 10 or 12 feet, usually
within more or less definite layers of calcareous hardpan, likewise the
outcome of the leaching of the valley slopes. Such areas, however, are
usually quite limited, and are, of course, scarcely reclaimable without
excessive expenditure, the more as they are often underlaid by saline
bottom water. In these cases the predominant saline ingredient is
usually common salt, as might be expected, and as is exemplified on a
large scale in the Great Salt Lake of Utah, and in the ocean itself.

In many cases, in California and elsewhere, the over-irrigation of
bench or slope lands has caused, first the lower slopes, and then the
bottom lands of streams and rivers, to be overrun with alkali salts,
although before irrigation was practiced these lands were exempt from
them. In some portions of the San Joaquin Valley this trouble has
become most serious, fertile lands long under successful cultivation
being rendered useless by thousands of acres, unless an expensive
system of underdrainage were resorted to. Even this remedy is largely

— 13 —

inapplicable in the absence of legislation providing for right-of-way for
drainage as well as for irrigation; but any such legislation should, at
the same time, provide a remedy for the leakage of ditch-water, which
is the original cause of the injury.

Composition of Alkali Salts.

Broadly speaking, it may be said that, the world over, alkali salts
consist of three chief ingredients, namely, common salt, glauber salt
(sulphate of soda), and salsoda or carbonate of soda. The latter
causes what is popularly known as " black alkali," from the black
spots or puddles seen on the surface of lands tainted with it, owing to
the dissolution of the soil humus; while the other salts, often together
with epsom salt, constitute " white alkali," which is known to be very
much milder in its effect on plants than the black. In most cases all
three are present, and all may be considered as practically valueless or
noxious to plant growth. With them, however, there are almost always
associated, in varying amounts, sulphate of potash, phosphate of soda,
and nitrate of soda, representing the three elements — potassium, phos-
phorus, and nitrogen — upon the presence of which in the soil, in avail-
able form, the welfare of our crops so essentially depends, and which we
aim to supply in fertilizers. The potash salt is usually present to the
extent of from 5 to 20 per cent of the total salts; phosphate, from a
fraction to as much as 4 per cent; the nitrate, from a fraction to as
much as 20 per cent. In black alkali the nitrate is usually low, the
phosphate high; in the white, the reverse is true.

It is thus clear that if we were to make a rule of reclaiming alkali
lands by leaching out the salts with abundance of irrigation water, we
would get rid not only of the noxious salts, but also of those ingredients
upon which productiveness primarily depends, and for which we pay
heavily in fertilizers. This is evidently to be avoided, if possible.

Summing up the conclusions from the foregoing observations and
considerations we find that —

(1) The amount of soluble salts in alkali soils is usually limited;
they are not ordinarily supplied in indefinite quantities from the bottom
water below. These salts have essentially been formed by weathering,
in the soil layer itself.

(2) The salts ordinarily move up and down within the upper 4 or 5
feet of the soil and subsoil, following the movement of the moisture;
descending in the rainy season to the limit of the annual moistening as
a maximum, and then reascending or not according as surface evapora-
tion may demand. At the end of the dry season, in untilled irrigated
land, practically the entire mass of salts may be within 6 or 8 inches
of the surface.

— 14 -

(3) The injury to vegetation is caused mainly, sometimes wholly,
within a few inches of the surface, by the corrosion of the bark, usually
near the root crown. This corrosion is strongest when carbonate of soda
(salsoda) forms a large proportion of the salts; the soda then also dis-
solves the vegetable mold and causes blackish spots in the soil, popu-
larly known as black alkali.

(4) The injury caused by carbonate of soda is aggravated by its
action in puddling the soil so as to cause it to lose its flaky condition,
rendering it almost or quite untillable. It also tends to form in the
depths of the soil layer a tough hardpan, impervious to water, which
yields to neither plow, pick, nor crowbar, and renders drainage and
leaching impossible. Its presence is easily ascertained by means of a
pointed steel sounding rod.

(5) While alkali lands share with other soils of the arid region the
advantage of unusually high percentages of plant-food in the insoluble
form,* they also contain, alongside of the noxious salts, considerable
amounts of water-soluble plant-food. When, therefore, the action of the
noxious salts is done away with, they should be profusely and lastingly
productive; particularly as they are always naturally somewhat moist
in consequence of the attraction of moisture by the salts, and are there-
fore less liable to injury from drought than the same soils when free
from alkali.

Utilization and Reclamation op 1 Alkali Lands.

The most obvious mode of utilizing alkali lands is to occupy them
with useful plants that are not affected by the noxious salts. Unfortu-
nately, as has already been stated, but few such crops of general utility,
especially for the commercial and labor conditions of this country, have
as yet been found. Practically the most important problem is to render
these lands available for our ordinary cultures, by methods financially
possible.

Counteracting Evaporation. — Since evaporation of the soil moisture
at the surface is what brings the alkali salts to the level where the
main injury to plants occurs, it is obvious that evaporation should be
prevented as much as possible. This is the more important, as the
saving of soil moisture, and therefore of irrigation water, is attainable
by the same means.

Three methods for this purpose are usually practiced by farmers and
gardeners, viz, shading, mulching, and the maintenance of loose tilth
in the surface soil to such depth as may be required by the climatic
conditions.

*See Bulletin No. 3 of the U. S. Weather Bureau, 1892; Report California Station,
1894-5.

— 15 —

As to mulching, it is already well recognized in the alkali regions of
California as an effective remedy in light cases. Fruit trees are fre-
quently thus protected, particularly while young, after which their
shade alone may (as in the case of low-trained orange trees) suffice to
prevent injury. The same often happens in the case of low- trained
vines, small fruit, and vegetables. Sanding of the surface to the depth
of several inches was among the first attempts in this direction; but
the necessity of cultivation, involving the renewal of the sand each
season, renders this a costly method. Straw, leaves, and manure have
been more successfully used; but even these, unless employed for the
purpose of fertilization, involve more expense and trouble than the sim-
ple maintenance of very loose tilth of the surface soil throughout the dry
season; a remedy which, of course, is equally applicable to field crops,
and in the case of some of these — e. g., cotton — is a necessary condition
of cultural success everywhere. The wide prevalence of "light" and
deep soils in the arid regions, from causes inherent in the climate
itself,* renders this condition of relatively easy fulfilment.

Diluting the Alkali Salts. — Aside, however, from the mere prevention
of surface evaporation, another favorable condition is realized by this
procedure, namely, the commingling of the heavily salt-charged surface
layers with the relatively nonalkaline subsoil. Since in the arid
regions the roots of all plants retire farther from the surface because of
the deadly drought and heat of summer, it is possible to cultivate
deeper than could safely be done with growing crops in humid climates.
Yet even here, the maxim of "deep preparation and shallow cultiva-
tion " is put into practice with advantage, only changing the measure-
ments of depth to correspond with the altered climatic conditions.
Thus, while in the eastern United States four inches is the accepted stand-
ard of depth for summer cultivation to preserve moisture without
injury to the roots, that depth must in the arid region frequently be
doubled in order to be effective, and will even then scarcely touch a
living root in orchards and vineyards in unirrigated land.

A glance at Fig. 1 (p. 7) will show the great advantage of extra
deep preparation in commingling the alkali salts accumulated near
the surface with the lower soil layers, diffusing the salts through 12
instead of 6 inches of soil mass. This will in very many cases suffice
to render the growth of ordinary crops possible if, by subsequent fre-
quent and thorough cultivation, surface evaporation, and with it the
reascent of the salts to the surface, is prevented. A striking example
of the efficiency pi this mode of procedure was given at the Tulare
substation, where a portion of a very bad alkali spot was trenched to
the depth of two feet, throwing the surface soil to the bottom. The spot

* See reference on preceding page.

— 16 —

thus treated produced excellent wheat crops for a few years — the time
it took the alkali salts to reascend to the surface.

It should therefore be kept in mind that whatever else is done toward
reclamation, deep preparation and thorough cultivation must be regarded
as prime factors for the maintenance of production on all alkali lands.

The efficacy of shading, already referred to. is strikingly illustrated
in the case of some field crops which, when once established, will
thrive on fairly strong alkali soil, provided that a good thick "stand'''
has once been obtained. This is notably true of the great forage crop
of the arid region, alfalfa, or lucern. Its seed is extremely sensitive to
black alkali, and will decay in the ground unless protected against it.
But when once a full stand has been obtained, the field may endure for
many years without a sign of injury. Here two effects combine, viz,
the shading, and the evaporation through the deep roots and abundant
foliage, which alone prevents, in a large measure, the ascent of the
moisture to the surface. The case is then precisely parallel to that of
the natural soil (see Fig. 2), except that, as irrigation is practiced in
order to stimulate production, the sheet of alkali hardpan will be dis-
solved and its salts spread through the soil more evenly. The result is
that oftentimes, so soon as the alfalfa is taken off the ground and the
cultivation of other crops is attempted, an altogether unexpectedly large
amount of alkali comes to the surface and greatly impedes, if it does
not altogether prevent, the immediate planting of other crops. Shallow-
rooted annual crops that give but little shade, like the cereals, while
measurably impeding the rise of the salts during their growth, fre-
quently allow of enough rise after harvest to prevent reseeding the
following season.

Chemical Remedies.

Of the three sodium salts that usually constitute the bulk of " alkali"
only the carbonate of soda is susceptible of being materially changed
by any agent that can practically be applied to land. So far as we
know, the salt of sodium least injurious to ordinary vegetation is the
sulphate, commonly called glauber salt, which ordinarily forms the
chief ingredient of white alkali. Thus barley is capable of resisting
about five times more of the sulphate than of the carbonate, and quite
twice as much as of common salt. Since the maximum percentage that
can be resisted by plants varies materially with the kind of soil, it is
difficult to give exact figures save with respect to particular cases. For
the sandy loam of the Tulare substation the maximum for cereals may
be approximately stated to be one tenth of one per cent (0.1) for sal-
soda, a fourth of one per cent (0.25) for common salt, and from forty-five
to fifty one hundredths of one per cent (0.45-.50) for glauber salt,
within the first foot from the surface. For clay soils the tolerance is
markedly less, especially as regards the salsoda, since in their case the

— 17 —

injurious effect on the tilling qualities of the soil, already referred to,
is superadded to the corrosive action of that salt; and in them, more-
over, accumulation at the surface is more pronounced.

Since, then, so little carbonate of soda suffices to render soils un-
cultivable, it frequently happens that its mere transformation into
the sulphate is sufficient to remove all stress from alkali. Gypsum
(land-plaster) is the cheap and effective agent to bring about this
transformation, provided water be also present. The amount required
per acre will, of course, vary with the amount of carbonate of soda in the
soil, all the way from a few hundred pounds to several tons in the case
of strong alkali spots. But it is not usually necessary to add the entire
quantity at once, provided that sufficient be used to neutralize the alkali

Fig. 5. Wheat growing in soil crusted with white alkali, originally a barren black
alkali spot. Tulare Experiment Substation.

near the surface, and enough time be allowed for the action to take
place. In very wet soils this may occur within a few days; in merely
damp soils, in the course of months; but usually the effect increases for
years, as the salts rise from below. For the complete neutralization of
each 1,000 pounds of carbonate of soda in the land, 1,630 pounds of
pure gypsum is required. But of the impure, 80-85% article as now
on the market in California, an even double quantity, or 2,000 pounds,
would be the proper dose.

The effect of gypsum on the black-alkali soil of Tulare substation

was to change a barren spot into a tract which produced a fine crop of

wheat, although the surface of the soil was covered with a crust of the

white alkali (sulphate of soda). This is shown in the accompanying

hotograph (Fig. 5).

2-b 128

— 18 —

The effect of gypsum on black alkali land is often very striking, even
to the eye. The blackish puddles and spots disappear, because the
gypsum renders the dissolved humus insoluble and thus restores it to
the soil. The latter soon loses its hard, puddled condition and crum-
bles and bulges into a loose mass, into which water now soaks freely,
bringing up the previously depressed spots to the general level of the
land, and permitting free subdrainage. On the surface thus changed
seeds now germinate and grow without hindrance; and as the injury
from alkali occurs at or near the surface, it is usually best to simply
harrow in the plaster, leaving the water to carry it down in solution.
Soluble phosphates present are decomposed, so as to retain finely
divided but less soluble phosphates in the soil.

Trees and vines already planted may be temporarily protected from
the worst effects of the black alkali by surrounding the trunks with
gypsum or with earth abundantly mixed with it. Seeds may be simi-
larly protected in sowing, and young plants in planting.

It must not be forgotten that this beneficial change may go back-
ward if the land thus treated is permitted to be swamped by excess of
irrigation water, or otherwise. Under the same conditions, naturally
white alkali may turn black; and no amount of gypsum used can pre-
vent or undo this until the excess of water is drained off and the soil
allowed time for aeration. Thus while excessive irrigation is injurious
at all times in diminishing the depth of root-growth and the feeding
area of the plant, it is especially so when alkali is present. Of .course,
gypsum is of no benefit whatever on soils containing no salsoda, but
only glauber and common salt.

Stable Manure and Other Fertilizers. — Under the impression that
alkali land is poor in plant-food, farmers frequently try applications of
stable manure and other fertilizers. As a rule, these applications are
not only useless but even harmful. From their very mode of formation,
alkali soils are exceptionally rich in plant-food, so that the addition of
more can do no good. In the case of stable manure being used on
black alkali ground, a pungent odor of ammonia is given off whenever
the sun shines, and plants otherwise doing well are thus injured or
killed. When well plowed-in, stable manure will sometimes prevent
to some extent the rise of alkali by diminishing evaporation; but its
usefulness in that respect is readily replaced by good tillage. The
main benefit obtained is the addition of humus to soils that have been
whitened by alkali action.

Potash salts, especially kainit, are wholly useless and add to the
alkali trouble; potash is always abundantly present in alkali lands,
even in the water-soluble condition. Nitrates, also, are always present
in alkali soils in sufficient amounts for plant growth, sometimes to

— 19 —

excess. Phosphates may sometimes be useful, but will rarely be needed
for some years. Greenmanuring, on the other hand, is a very desirable
improvement on all alkali lands.

Removing the Salts from the Soil.

In case the amount of salts in the soil should be so great that even
the change worked by gypsum is insufficient to render it available for
useful crops, the only remedy left is to remove the salts partially or
wholly from the land. Two chief methods are available for this purpose.
One is to remove the salts, with more or less earth, from the surface at
the end of the dry season, either by sweeping, or by means of a horse
scraper set so as to carry off a certain depth of soil. Thus sometimes
in a single season one third or one half of the total salts may be got
rid of, the loss of a few inches of surface soil being of little moment in
the deep soils of the arid region. The other method is to leach them
out of the soil into the country drainage, supplementing by irrigation
water what is left undone by the deficient rainfall.

It is not practicable, as many suppose, to wash the salts off the sur-
face by a rush of water, as they instantly soak into the ground at the
first touch. Nor is there any sensible relief from allowing the water to
stand on the land and then drawing it off; in this case also the salts
soak down ahead of the water, and the water standing on the surface
remains almost unchanged. In very pervious soils, and in the case of
white alkali, the washing-out can often be accomplished without special
provision for underdrainage, by leaving the water on the land suffi-
ciently long. But the laying of regular underdrains greatly accelerates
the work, and renders success certain.

An important exception, however, occurs in the case of black alkali
in most lands. In this case either the impervious hardpan or (in the
case of actual alkali spots) the impenetrability of the surface soil itself,
will render even underdrains ineffective unless the salsoda and its
effects on the soil are first destroyed by the use of gypsum, as above
detailed. This is not only necessary in order to render drainage and
leaching possible, but is also advisable in order to prevent the leaching-
out of the valuable humus and soluble phosphates, which are rendered
insoluble (but not unavailable to plants) by the action of the gypsum.
Wherever black alkali is found, therefore, the application of gypsum
should precede any and all other efforts toward reclamation.

Another method for diminishing the amount of alkali in the soil is
the cropping with plants that take up considerable amounts of salts.
In taking them into cultivation, it is advisable to remove entirely from
the land the salt growth that may naturally cover it, notably the
greasewoods (Allenrolfea, Sarcobatus), with their heavy percentages of
alkaline ash. Crop plants adapted to the same object are mentioned
farther on.

— 20 —
Will It Pay to Reclaim Alkali Lands?

This is a question naturally asked when considering the nature and
expense of the operation involved, especially when the last resort —
underdraining and leaching— has to be adopted.

Those familiar with the alkali regions are aware how often the
occurrence of alkali spots interrupts the continuity of fields and
orchards, of which they form only a small part, but enough to mar their
aspect and cultivation. Their increase and expansion under irrigation
frequently render their reclamation the only alternative of absolute
abandonment of the investments and improvements made, and from
that point of view alone it is of no slight practical importance. More-
over, the occurrence of vast continuous stretches of alkali lands within
the otherwise most eligibly situated portions of the irrigation region
forms a strong incentive toward their utilization.

There is, however, a strong intrinsic reason pointing in the same
direction, namely, the almost invariably high and lasting productive-
ness of these lands when once rendered available to agriculture. This is
foreshadowed by the usually very heavy and luxuriant growth of native
plants around the margins of and between alkali spots (see Fig. 6);
that is, wherever the amount of injurious salts present is so small as not
to interfere with the utilization of the abundant store of plant-food which,
under the peculiar conditions of soil formation in arid climates, remains
in the land instead of being washed into the ocean. Extended com-
parative investigations of soil composition, as well as the experience of
thousands of years in the oldest settled countries of the world, demon-
strate this fact and show that so far from being in need of fertilization,
alkali lands possess extraordinary productive capacity whenever freed
from the injurious influence of the excess of useless salts left in the soil
in consequence of deficient rainfall. Alkali salts are actually scraped
up and carried to the cultivated fields in sacks in parts of Turkestan,
the peasants considering that " the salt is the life of the land." (Mid-
dendorf).

It does not, of course, follow that alkali lands are good lands for
farmers of limited means to settle upon. On the contrary, like most
other business enterprises, they require a certain amount of capital and
lapse of time to render them productive. They are not therefore a
proper investment for farmers or settlers of small means, dependent on
annual crops for their livelihood and unable to bring to bear upon these
soils the proper means for their reclamation; unless, indeed, local con-
ditions should enable them to use successfully some of the crops specially
adapted to alkali lands.

-— 22 —

Crops Suitable for Alkali Lands.

As has already been stated, the search for generally available crops
that will thrive in strong, unreclaimed alkali land has not thus far
been very successful. It is true that cattle will nibble alkali grass
(Distichlis spicata), but will soon leave it for any dry feed that may be
within reach. The same is true of all the fleshy plants that grow on
the stronger alkali lands, and are known under the general designa-
tion of alkali weeds. When stock unaccustomed to it are forced by
hunger to feed on such vegetation to any considerable extent, disor-
dered digestion is apt to result; which in such ranges, however, is often
counteracted by feeding on aromatic or astringent antidotes, such as
the gray sagebrush and the more or less resinous herbage of plants of
the sunflower family. In the Great Basin region, lying between the
Sierra Nevada and the front range of the Rocky Mountains, there are,
aside from the grasses, numerous herbaceous and shrubby plants that
afford valuable pasturage for stock,* and some of these grow on mod-
erately strong alkali land; the same is true in California. It is quite
possible that some of these will be found to lend themselves to ready
propagation for culture purposes as well as they do for restocking the
ranges. But thus far none have found wider acceptance, probably
because their stiff branches and upright habit render them inconven-
ient to handle. It will require more extended experience and experi-
ment before any of these can be definitely adopted by farmers.

Experience in California indicates that in the more southerly portion
of the arid region the unpalatable native plants may be generally
replaced, even on the ranges, by one or more species of the Australian
saltbushes (Atriplex spp.), long ago recommended by Baron von
Mueller of Melbourne; of which one {A. semibaccata) has proved emi-
nently adapted to the climate and soil of California and is readily
eaten by all kinds of stock. The facility with which it is propagated,
its quick development, the large amount of feed yielded on a given
area, even in the strongest alkali land ordinarily found, and its thin,
flexible stems, permitting it to be handled very much like alfalfa,
seem to commend it specially to the farmer's consideration wherever
the climate will permit of its use. Its resistance to severe cold weather
has not yet been adequately tested. It is probable that other species,
now also under trial, will equally justify the recommendation given
them by the eminent botanist who first brought them into public
notice as promising forage plants. Most of the species have an upright,
shrubby habit, which adapts them rather to browsing than to use as a

* See Bulletin No. 16 of the Wyoming Experiment Station; also Bulletins Nos. 2 and
12 of the Division of Agrostology, and Farmers' Bulletin No. 108, TJ. S. Department of
Agriculture.

— 23 —

forage crop. Among the best next to the semibaccata are the species
leptocarpa and halimoides, the former somewhat similar in habit to the
semibaccata but not so rapid a grower. A special bulletin on the salt-
bushes, Australian as well as native, has been published by this Sta-
tion and will be sent on request.

It is to be noted that since the saltbushes take up nearly one fifth of
their dry weight of ash ingredients*, largely common salt, the complete
removal from the land of a five-ton crop of saltbush hay will take away
nearly a ton of the alkali salts per acre. This will in the course of
some years be quite sufficient to reduce materially the saline contents
of the land, and wiU frequently render possible the culture of ordinary
crops.

Next to the saltbushes the Chilean plant Modiola decumbens (now
commonly known as modiola simply), of the mallow family, deserves
attention. Accidentally introduced as a weed with other seeds, by the
Kern County Land Company at Bakersfield, it attracted attention by
its persistence on alkali lands, and by the observation that cattle ate it
freely. It was then grown on a larger scale, and found to make accep-
table pasture where alfalfa could not be grown on account of alkali. It
is a trailing plant with medium-sized, roundish foliage, and roots freely
at the joints where they touch the ground. Unlike the saltbushes it is
therefore a formidable weed where it is not wanted; but as according to
our determinations it resists as much as 52,000 pounds of salts per acre,
even when 41,000 of these is common salt, it is likely to be useful in
many cases, particularly as an admixture to a saltbush diet for stock,
the more as it does not absorb as much salt as the latter. Owing to
the rooting habit of the stems, it is not as convenient to handle as the
semibaccata saltbush, nor, probably, will it yield as much fodder in a
season. It seems best adapted to pasturage.

Another forage plant which it may hereafter pay to propagate arti-
ficially on strong alkali land, is the tussock-grass (Sporobolus airoides),
of which a figure is given on page 37. Indicating as it usually does
when growing naturally, land too strongly impregnated to be reclaimable
at this time, but being freely eaten by stock, it seems worth while to
count it among the possible pasture grasses for land too strongly alka-
line to bear ordinary crops. Its seed can be abundantly gathered in its
native habitats, indicated below.

* Analyses made at the California station show 19.37 per cent of ash in the air-dry
matter of Australian saltbush. (See California Sta. Bui. 105; E. S. R., vol. 6, p. 718.)
Analyses of Russian thistle have been reported showing over 20 per cent of ash in dry
matter. (See Minnesota Sta. Bui. 34; Iowa Sta. Bui. 26; E. S. R., vol. 6, pp. 552, 553.)

— 24 —

Amount of Salts Compatible with Ordinary Crops.

Since the amount of alkali that reaches the surface layer is largely-
dependent upon the varying conditions of rainfall or irrigation and
surface evaporation, it is difficult to foresee to what extent that
accumulation may go, unless we & know the total amount of salts present
that may be called into action. This can be ascertained by a summa-
tion of the results obtained and shown in the above diagrams for each
layer, but more readily by the examination of one sample representing
the average of the entire soil column of 4 feet. By calculating the
figures so obtained to an acre of ground, we can at least approximate
the limits within or beyond which crops will succeed or perish.

Grasses. — Applying this procedure to the cases investigated at the
Tulare substation, and estimating the weight of the soil per acre-foot at
4,000,000 pounds, we find for the land on which barley refused to grow
the figure 32,480 pounds of total salts per acre, corresponding to 0.203
per cent; while for the land on which barley gave a full crop we find
25,440 pounds, equivalent to 0.159 per cent for the whole soil column
of 4 feet. It thus appears that for barley the limits of tolerance lie
between the above two figures, which might, of course, have been
obtained equally well from an average sample of the 4-foot column by
making a single analysis. It should be noted that in this case a full
crop of barley was grown even when the alkali consisted of fully one
half of the noxious carbonate of soda, proving that it is not necessary
in every case to neutralize the entire amount of that salt by means of
gypsum, which in the present case would have required about 9i tons
of gypsum per acre — a prohibitory expenditure.

Rye appears to be about like barley in its tolerance of alkali salts;
while wheat is somewhat more sensitive. In fact, the superficial rooting
and fine fibrous roots of the true grasses render them, as a whole, rather
sensitive to alkali salts; yet there are a number of the perennial kinds
whose thick roots and deeper rooting render them measurably resistant.
Aside from the alkali grass proper (Distichlis), the so-called rye grass
of the Northwest (Elymus condensatus) is probably, next to the tussock-
grass, the most resistant species among the wild grasses. Its southern
form, with several, others not positively identified, occupy largely the
milder alkali lands of Southern California, such as the low lands near
Chino producing choice sugar beets on a close-textured silty loam.

While maize is rather sensitive, and fails on even slightly alkaline
lands, Egyptian corn and other sorghums, rooting somewhat deeper,
and having stout roots, do well on mild alkali soils of the white class.
The same appears to be true of some of the stout-rooted millets, such
as barnyard grass (Panicum crus-galli), of which the variety (?) muti-

— 25 —

cum is reported to succeed well in neutral alkali land. One of the most
successful grasses on the light alkali lands near Chino, where most of
the commonly cultivated kinds fail, was a near relative of the barnyard
grass, the Eleusine coracana, which produces heavy crops of a millet-
like grain much relished by poultry and also by stock. This grass (of
which seed can be obtained from the Station) has succeeded all over
the ground whose alkali content ranges up to 12,000 pounds per acre.
Next to this, in point of success, were the pearl millet (Pennisetum
typhoideum) and teosinte, Hungarian brome grass, and Japanese millet,
on land containing about 9,000 pounds of salts per acre. The loliums,
including the darnel (" California cheat"), and the Australian and
Italian ray ("rye") grasses, succeed fairly on land containing as much as
6,000 pounds of (white) salts. Most other cultivated grasses failed
conspicuously alongside of these. It must be remembered that in more
loose-textured, sandy lands than those in which these tests were made,
the above figures for tolerance would probably be increased by 30 per
cent or more.

Doubtless some of the indigenous grasses of the interior plateau
region and the great plains east of the Rocky Mountains, such as the
buffalo and grama grasses, as well as several of the wheat grasses
(Agropyron) and bunch grasses (Festuca, Poa, Stipa, etc.) will prove
resistant to larger proportions of alkali than the meadow and pasture
grasses of the regions of summer rains.

Legumes. — Both the natural growth of alkali lands and experimental
tests seem to show that this entire family (peas, beans, clovers, etc.)
are among the more sensitive and least available wherever black alkali
exists, while fairly tolerant of the white (neutral) salts. Apparently a
very little salsoda suffices to destroy the tubercle-forming organisms that
are so important a medium of nitrogen-nutrition in these plants. Alfalfa,
with its hard, stout, and long taproot, seems to resist best of all these
plants, excepting the melilots. As a general thing, taprooted plants,
when once established, resist best, for the obvious reason that the main
mass of their feeding roots reaches below the danger level. Another favor-
ing condition, already alluded to, is heavy foliage and consequent shad-
ing of the ground; alfalfa happens to combine both of these advantages.
There has been some difficulty in obtaining a full stand of alfalfa in the
portion of the Chino tract containing from 4,000 to 6,000 pounds of alkali
salts per acre; but once obtained it has done very well. The only other
plant of this family that succeeds well on this land, and even (at Tulare)
on soil considerably stronger (probably between 20,000 and 30,000
pounds) are the two melilots, M. indica and alba; the latter (the
Bokhara clover) is a forage plant of no mean value in moist climates,
but somewhat restricted in its use in California because of the very high
aroma it develops, especially in alkali lands; so that stock will eat only

— 26 —

limited amounts, best when intermixed with other forage, such as the
saltbushes. The yellow melilot is highly recommended by the Arizona
station as a greenmanure plant for winter growth; but in this State it
is a summer-growing plant only, and is refused by stock. Very few
plants belonging to this famity are naturally found on alkali lands, and
attempts to grow them, even where only glauber salt is present, have
been but very moderately successful. The salts seem to retard or even
prevent the formation of the tubercles useful for nitrogen absorption;
and for most of the legumes the limit of full success seems to lie between
3,000 and 4,000 pounds to the acre.

Weeds. — Like the legumes, wild plants of the mustard family are rare
on alkali lands; and correspondingly, the cultivated mustard, kale, rape,
etc., fail even on land quite weak in alkali. Their limit of tolerance
seems to lie near 4,000 to 5,000 pounds per acre of even white salts.

Several of the hardiest of the native "alkali weeds" belong to the sun-
flower family, and the common wild sunflowers (Helianthus californicus
and H. annuus) are common on lands pretty strongly alkaline. Cor-
respondingly, the " Jerusalem artichoke," itself a sunflower, is among
the available crops on moderately strong alkali soils; and so, doubtless,
are other members of the same relationship not yet tested, such as the
true artichoke, salsify, etc. Chicory, belonging to the same family,
yielded roots at the rate of 12 tons per acre, on land on the Chino tract
containing about 8,000 pounds of salts per acre.

Root Crops. — It seems to be generally true that root crops suffer in
quality, however satisfactory may be the quantity harvested on lands
rich in salts, and especially in chlorids (common salt). It was noted at
the Tulare substation that the tubers of the artichoke were inclined to
be "squashy" in the stronger alkali land, and failed to keep well; the
same was true of potatoes, which were very watery; and also of turnips
and carrots. It is a fact well known in Europe, that potatoes manured
with kainit (chlorids of potassium and sodium) are unfit for the man-
ufacture of starch, and are generally of inferior quality. But this is
found not to be the case when, instead of the chlorids, the sulphate is
used; hence the advice, often repeated by this Station, that farmers
desiring to use potash fertilizers should call for the " high-grade sul-
phate" instead of the cheaper kainit, which adds to the injurious salts
already so commonly present in California lowland soils.

The common beet (including the mangel-wurzel) is known to succeed
well on saline seashore lands, and it maintains its reputation on alkali
lands also. Being specially tolerant of common salt, it may be grown
where other crops fail on this account; but the roots so grown are
strongly charged with common salt, and have, as is well known, been

— 27 —

used for the purpose of removing excess of the same from marsh lands.
Such roots are wholly unfit for sugar-making.

It is quite otherwise with glauber salt (sodium sulphate); and as
this is usually predominant in alkali lands, either before or after the
gypsum treatment, this fact is of great importance, for it permits of the
successful growing of the sugar beet; as has been abundantly proved at
the Chino ranch, where land containing as much as 12,000 pounds of
salts, mostly this compound, has yielded roots of very high grade both
as to sugar percentage and purity.

Asparagus is another crop which bears considerable amounts of com-
mon salt as well as of glauber salt; but not of salsoda, which must
first be transformed by the use of gypsum.

Rhubarb was a conspicuous failure in even the weak alkali lands of
the Chino tract.

Textile Plants. — Japanese hemp seemed to have a hard struggle
with the alkali while young, but at the end of the season stood 8 feet
high. The ramie plant, also, will bear moderately strong alkali, appar-
ently somewhat over 12,000 pounds per acre. Flax has not been tested
in cultivation; but its wide distribution all over the States of Oregon
and Washington would seem to indicate that it is not very sensitive.
Another textile plant, the Indian mallow (Abutilon avicennm), was
found to fail on the Chino alkali soil.

Grapevines. — The Vitis vinifera is quite tolerant of white or neutral
alkali salts, and will resist even a moderate amount of the black so
long as no hardpan is allowed to form. At the Tulare substation, it
was found that grapevines did well in sandy land containing 35,230
pounds of alkali salts, of which one half was glauber salt, 9,640 pounds
carbonate of soda, 7,550 pounds common salt, and 750 pounds nitrate of
soda. They were badly distressed where, of a total of 37,020 pounds of
alkali salts, 25,620 pounds was carbonate of soda; while where the
vines had died out, there was found a total of 73,930 pounds, with
37,280 pounds of carbonate. The European vine, then, is considerably
more resistant of alkali, even in its worst (black) form, than barley
and rye; and it seems likely that the native grapevines of the Pacific
Coast, Calif ornica and Arizonica, would resist even better; a point still
under experiment.

Experience, however, has shown that vines rapidly succumb when by
excessive irrigation the bottom water is allowed to rise, increasing the
amount of alkali salts near the surface and shallowing the soil at their
disposal. Such over-irrigation has been a fruitful cause of injury to
vineyards in the Fresno region, and would doubtless if practiced kill
most of the vines at Tulare substation which are now flourishing. In
such cases sometimes the formation of hardpan is followed by that of a

— 28 —

concentrated alkaline solution above it, strong enough to corrode the
roots themselves, and not only killing the vines, but rendering the land
unfit for any agricultural use whatsoever. The swamping of alkali
lands, whether of the white or black kind, is not only fatal to their
present productiveness, but, on account of the strong chemical action
thus induced, greatly jeopardizes their future usefulness. Many costly
investments in orchards and vineyards have thus been rendered unpro-
ductive, or have even become a total loss.

Citrus Trees. — These are on the whole rather sensitive to alkali,
especially while young; so that it is often difficult to obtain a stand even
when, later on, the feeding roots descend beyond the reach of injury.
In the close-textured lands of Chino, young trees hardly maintained
life with more than 5,000 pounds of total salts. Common salt seems to
be particularly injurious; near Riverside, full-grown trees perished
under the influence of bottom water containing 0.25 per cent or 146
grains of salt per gallon, which impregnated the ground; corresponding
to about 9,000 pounds per acre in four feet.

In the sandy loam lands near Corona, trees eight years old suffered
severely when by irrigation with alkali water the alkali content of the
land reached 11,000 pounds per acre; as illustrated in Plates 7 and 8,
pages 32 and 33. At another point in the same region, two representa-
tive trees were selected for comparison, five rows apart on land absolutely
identical; one of these retained its leaves, though suffering, the other
was completely leafless. The leaching of the alkali to the depth of 4 feet
gave the following results, calculated to pounds per acre:

Sulphates. Carbonates. Chlorids. Total.

Poortree 4,720 1,680 2,520 8,920

Better tree _ 4,120 2,360 720 7,200

Here it is apparently the excess of common salt to which the differ-
ence is due, and this despite the higher content of carbonate of soda in
the soil bearing the better tree.

On the other hand, at the Tulare substation, orange trees (sour stock)
maintain vigorous growth and good bearing in a very sandy tract
which to the depth of 7 feet showed an aggregate content of 26,840
pounds of salts (or 22,780 to 4 feet depth); but which is never irri-
gated. (See diagram, page 10.) The salts in this case consist wholly
of sulphate and carbonate of soda in the ratio of 54 to 42, implying
the presence of nearly 12,000 pounds of salsoda within reach of the
tree roots; yet in the absence of common salt, no perceptible injury or
even stress upon the trees has been noted.

In view of these facts, it seems that common salt is the portion of
alkali by far most injurious to citrus trees, and that great care should
be taken in the use of irrigation waters to exclude those charged with

— 29 —

common salt; also, to avoid locating citrus orchards where common
salt pre-exists in the land.

Deciduous Orchard Trees. — Of these, strangely enough, the almond
seems to resist best. The peach is more sensitive; the apricot does fairly.
Plum trees as such are nearly as resistant as peaches, but sometimes sud-
denly begin to fail when beginning to bear; the fruit appears normal on
the outside for a time, but the pit fails to form, being sometimes flattened
out like a piece of pasteboard; and the fruit fails to mature. Apples
are rather sensitive; pears considerably less so, doing well even when
the outside bark around the root crown is blackened by the alkali. The
olive is quite resistant; the fig less so. The English walnut resents
even a slight taint of black alkali, but is fairly tolerant of "white"
salts, as is shown in the peculiarly suitable light loam soils on the
lower Santa Clara River, in Ventura County.

Figures for the limits of alkali tolerance in the case of the deciduous
orchard trees have not yet been closely determined, owing to the
difficulties inherent in the differences of root penetration in the several
soils and localities. On the ten-acre tract near Chino, therefore on
a rather close-textured soil, apple trees have done very well on land
containing one fourth of one per cent of ("white") salts, or between
10,000 and 11,000 pounds per acre. On similar soil, the quince appears
to be perfectly at home.

Timber and Shade Trees. — Of trees suitable for alkali lands, two native
ones call for mention. One is the California white or valley oak ( Quercus
lobata), which forms a dense forest of large trees on the delta lands of
the Kaweah River in California, and is found scatteringly all over the
San Joaquin Valley (see frontispiece). Unfortunately, this tree does not
supply timber valuable for aught but firewood or fence posts, being
quite brittle. The native cottonwoods, while somewhat retarded and
dwarfed in their growth in strong alkali, are quite tolerant of the white
salts, especially of glauber salt.

Of other trees, the oriental plane, or sycamore, and the black locust,
have proved the most resistant in the alkali lands of the San Joaquin
Valley; and the former being a very desirable shade tree, it should be
widely used throughout the regions where alkali prevails more or less.
The ailantus is about equally resistant, and but for the evil odor of its
flowers, deserves strong commendation. Of the eucalypts, the narrow-
leaved Eucalyptus amygdalina (one of the "red gums") seems to be
least sensitive, and in some cases has grown as rapidly as anywhere.
The E. rostrata, as well as the pink-flowered variety of E. sideroxylon,
are now doing about as well as the amygdalina at Tulare, where at first
they seemed to suffer. The common blue gum, E. globulus, is much
more sensitive.

— 30 -

Of the acacias, the tall-growing A, melanoxylon (" black acacia ")
resists pretty strong alkali, even on stiff soil; as can be seen at Tulare
and Bakersfield, where there are trees nearly two feet in diameter. The
beautiful A. lophantha (Albizzia) has in plantings made along the San
Joaquin Valley Railroad shown considerable resistance, likewise; but
it is quite sensitive to frost.

One of the "Australian pines, Casuarina equisetifolia" was transplanted
experimentally on station grounds of the Valley Railroad from the
Chico forestry substation, and a number are growing very well in alkali
lands. This tree is credited by Maiden with being tolerant of "saline
soil." Doubtless many others of the Casuarina tribe will be found sim-
ilarly resistant.

Of Eastern trees, the elms have done fairly well, but the tulip tree,
the linden, the English oak, and most other trees of the Atlantic States,
become stunted. Among those doing fairly well is the honey locust;
but its thorns and imperfect shade render it not very desirable.

The California maple {Acer macrophyllum) and box elder (Negundo
calif ornica) have done fairly well in the lighter alkali lands at Tulare.

A most remarkably alkali-resistant shrub or small tree is the pretty
Koelreuteria paniculata, which at Tulare is growing in some of the
strongest alkali soil of the tract. Unfortunately it is available mainly
for ornamental purposes; its wood, while small, is very hard and makes
excellent fuel.

Irrigation with Saline Waters.

It would hardly seem necessary to emphasize specially the danger
incurred in irrigation with waters containing unusual amounts of solu-
ble salts; since ordinary common sense clearly indicates the impropriety
of increasing the saline contents of soils already charged with them, by
the evaporation, year after year, of large masses of saline water. Yet
experience has shown that the eagerness to utilize for irrigation whatever
water happens to be convenient to good lands, often overcomes both
that sense, and the warning given by the published analyses of such
waters. Without specifiying localities, it may be said that great injury
has already been done in California by the disregard of obviously
needful caution in this respect. The very slight taste possessed by
glauber salt and salsoda does not adequately indicate their presence
even when in injurious amounts; so that frequently a chemical test of
the waters is the only definite guide. A few general rules, however,
will help to enable the irrigator to determine whether or not such
examination is called for.

It may be taken for granted that the waters of all lakes having no
regular outflow are unfit for regular irrigation use; since they must needs
contain all the accumulations of salts from the secular evaporation of
the waters that flow into them.

— 31 —

The plates annexed exhibit the cultural results of several years'
irrigation with the waters of Lake Elsinore, Riverside County, as com-
pared with the growth of orange trees on the same land, but irrigated
with artesian water. Lake Elsinore is fed by the San Jacinto River,
and in wet years sometimes overflows for a few weeks into Temescal
Creek. Thus its saline content varies somewhat, from about 80 to over
100 grains per gallon, of salts containing three-fifths of common salt
and one-fifth each of glauber salt and carbonate of soda. The latter,
as already stated, tends to form a hardpan in the subsoil, and such
hardpan was actually formed where the water was used; and afterward
prevented its proper penetration, so that the trees suffered from dryness
of their lower roots, while damaged by the alkali salts near the surface.
As mentioned before, experience elsewhere has shown that citrus trees
are especially sensitive to common salt.

The investigations made by the Station have, moreover, shown that
aside from the frequently saline character of the well and even the
artesian waters of the petroleum-bearing region of the State in the coast
ranges, the streams of that region, especially the smaller ones, are some-
times too strongly charged with "alkali" (in this case largely the
sulphates of soda and magnesia) to be suitable either for irrigation or
domestic use. Toward the end of the dry season, even the larger streams
of the southern coast ranges, with their diminished flow, sometimes show
an excess of salts. This seems also to be true of the San Jacinto River,
which feeds Elsinore Lake.

The waters flowing from the Sierra Madre, south of the Tehachapi
range, are throughout of excellent quality for irrigation purposes; as
are all those flowing from the Sierra Nevada. The same is true of the
artesian waters of the valley of Southern California, from Los Angeles
east to Redlands, and of all the deeper borings of the Antelope Valley.

In the Great Valley, the artesian waters vary greatly in quality.
Those of Kern and Tulare counties are mostly good, sometimes excep-
tionally so, as in the case of the water-supply of Tulare City. It is only
the shallower borings, near the borders of Tulare Lake, that some waters
strongly charged with carbonate of soda or other salts have been found.
From Fresno and Merced we have few data as yet; but it seems that
north of a line drawn from northeastern Stanislaus via Tracy to Point
of Timber, saline waters, sometimes accompanied by some gas, occur at
certain levels. But the deep wells bored at Stockton and Sacramento,
and northward, have good potable water.

Limits of Saline Contents. — Unfortunately it is not easy to give absolute
rules in regard to the exact figures that constitute an excess of salts
for irrigation purposes, since not only the composition of the salts,
but also the nature of the land to be irrigated, and the frequency of
irrigation required, must be taken into consideration.

3 ®

5 °

3— B 1

(33)

— 34 —

Broadly speaking, the extreme limits of mineral content usually-
assigned for potable waters, viz, 40 grains per gallon, also applies to
irrigation waters. Yet it sometimes happens that all or most of the
solid content is gypsum and epsbm salt; when only a large excess of
the latter would constitute a bar to irrigation use. When, on the con-
trary, a large proportion of the solids consists of carbonate of soda or
of common salt, even a smaller proportion of salts than 40 grains
might preclude its regular use, depending upon the nature of the soil
to be irrigated. For in a clay loam, or a heavy adobe, not only do the
salts accumulate nearer to the surface, but the subdrainage being slow
and imperfect (unless underdrained), it becomes difficult or impossible
to wash out the saline accumulations from time to time, as is feasible
in sandy lands. In these, moreover, as already stated, the alkali never
becomes as concentrated near the surface as in heavier soils. Again,
where hardpan exists in sandy land, saline irrigation-water soon
saturates the soil mass above it with salts.

During the two dry seasons just past saline waters have frequently
been used, exceptionally, in order to save trees threatened with death
from drought. The Station has even advised that this should be done,
with the proviso that the salts so introduced must be washed into the sub-
drainage by heavy irrigation, whenever practicable, even if the same
saline water should have to be used for the purpose. For few such
waters are sufficiently strong to injure vegetation until concentrated by
evaporation; as can be seen from the vegetation growing close to the
margins of alkaline lakes, with its roots immersed in the water.

The irrigator can determine for himself whether or not his water is
of doubtful character, by evaporating a tablespoonful, or more, in a clean
silver spoon (avoiding boiling). If the dry residue should form simply
a thin, powdery-looking film on the polished metal, he may be assured
that the water is all right. If, on the other hand, an obvious saline
crust should remain, which will redissolve in water, he should either
have an analysis made, or use the water in such a manner as to remove
the accumulated salts from time to time by washing them into the
subdrainage, if the nature of the soil permits. A very abundant use of
such ivaters is then preferable to a sparring one; but the user should
assure himself that it really penetrates, for otherwise, especially in case
much carbonate of soda is present, a dense hardpan may be formed that
will allow the trees to perish from drought despite all the water running
in the irrigation furrows. A pointed steel probe, three-sixteenths of an
inch square, provided with a cross-handle, like a hand auger, ought
to be among the tools of every farmer for such tests of his subsoil.
No farmer in the arid region can afford to be ignorant of the nature
of the substrata within which the bulk of the roots of his crops must
vegetate.

Reclaimable and Irreclaimable Alkali Lands as Distinguished by
Their Natural Vegetation.

While, as shown above, the adaptation or non-adaptation of par-
ticular alkali lands to certain cultures may be determined by sampling
the soil and subjecting the leachings to chemical analysis, it is obvi-
ously desirable that some other means, if possible available to the
farmer himself, should be found to determine the reclaimability and
adaptation of such lands for general or special cultures.

The natural plant growth seems to afford such means, both as
regards the quality and quantity of the saline ingredients. The most
superficial observation shows that certain plants indicate extremely
strong alkali lands where they occupy the ground alone; others indi-
cate preeminently the presence of common salt; the presence or absence
of still others form definite or probable indications of reclaimability or
non-reclaimability. Many such characteristic plants are well known
to and readily recognized by the farmers of the alkali districts.
"Alkali weeds" are commonly talked about almost everywhere; but the
meaning of this term — i. e., the kind of plant designated thereby—
varies materially from place to place, according to climate as well as to
the quality of the soil. Yet if these characteristic plants could be
definitely observed, described, and named, while also ascertaining the
amount and kind of alkali they indicate as existing in the land, lists
could be formed for the several districts, which would indicate, in a
manner intelligible to the farmer himself, the kind and degree of
impregnation with which he would have to deal in the reclamation
work, thus enabling him to go to work on the basis of his own judg-
ment, without previous reference to this Station.

The carrying-out of such a plan involves, obviously, a very large
amount of botanical as well as chemical work, which cannot be accom-
plished within a few seasons; and, in view of the wide differences in
the vegetation of the several alkali regions of the State, the same work
will have to be repeated to a certain extent in each of these regions.
The object to be achieved is, however, of such high practical impor-
tance — an importance not remotely appreciated as yet by those not
familiar with the enormous extent of otherwise desirable lands in this
State that are more or less tainted with alkali — as to deserve the
expenditure upon it of a large amount of work as promptly as possible.

The extreme limitation of funds under which the Agricultural Col-
lege, together with the University as a whole, has been suffering for
some years past, has thus far restricted the scope of these researches
very closely, both geographically and otherwise. It is hoped that in
the future, a close comparison of the native vegetation with the chem-
ical determination of the quantity and kind of alkali corresponding to

— 36 —

certain plants, or groups of plants, naturally occurring on the land,
may enable us to come to a sufficiently close estimate of the nature
and capabilities of the latter from the native vegetation alone, or with
the aid of test plants purposely grown. But before entering upon this
complex problem, it has been thought best to determine, first of all,
what lands may for present economic conditions be considered irre-
claimable, because their improvement would involve an expense out of
proportion with present land values. So far as large areas are con-
cerned, this may probably be considered to be the case when tile under-
drainage is required in order to wash out the salts; while of course
smaller tracts, which interrupt the cultivation of fields, may frequently
justify the laying of a few drain lines required to render them cultiva-
ble with the rest of the land.

As stated in the report of this Station for 1895-7, the field work of
this investigation, both botanical and in the collection of the corre-
sponding soil samples, has been done by Mr. Joseph Burtt Davy,
Assistant Botanist to the Station, who also supplies the notes accom-
panying the same; while the laboratory work for the determination of
the amounts and kinds of salts present in the several cases has been
carried out by Prof. R. H. Loughridge.

The plants hereinafter mentioned, and figured for the benefit of the
great majority of readers who would fail to recognize them from the
botanical description alone, are then to be understood as indicating,
whenever they occupy the ground as an abundant and luxuriant growth,
that such land is irreclaimable for ordinary crops, unless underdrained
for the purpose of washing out surplus salts. The occurrence merely
of scattered, more or less stunted individuals of these plants, while
a sure indication of the presence of alkali salts, does not necessarily
show that the land is irreclaimable.

The plants which may best serve as such indicators in California are
the following:

Tussock-grass (Sporobolus airoides, Torr.), Fig. 9;

Greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus (Hook.) Torr.), Fig. 10;

Dwarf Samphire (Salicornia subterminalis, Parish, and other species),

Fig. 11;

Bushy Samphire (Allenrolfea occidentalis (Wats.) Ktze.), Fig. 12;
Saltwort (Suaeda Torreyana, Wats., and S. suffrutescens, Wats.),
Fig. 13;
Alkali-heath (Frankcnia grandifolia campestris, Gray), Fig. 14;
Cressa (Cressa c:etica truxillensis, Choisy), Fig. 15.

37 —

TUSSOCK-GRASS* (Sporobolus airoides, Torr.); Fig. 9.

The three sets of samples of Tussock-grass soil which have been analyzed
show that the total amount of all salts present is in no case less than
49,000 pounds per acre, to a
depth of four feet, and that it
sometimes reaches the extraor-
dinarily high figure of 499,000
pounds. Of these amounts the
neutral salts (glauber salt and
common salt) are usually in the
heaviest proportion (glauber salt,
19,600 to 323,000 pounds per
acre ; common salt, 3,500 to
172,800); the corrosive salsoda
varying from 3,000 to 44,000
pounds. —Tussock-grass appar-
ently cannot persist in ground
which is periodically flooded. It
is of special importance because
it is an acceptable forage for
stock.

Tussock-grass is a prevalent
alkali-indicator in the hot, arid
portions of the interior, from the
upper San Joaquin Valley, the
Mojave Desert, and southward;
also through southern Nevada
and Utah as far east as Kansas
and Nebraska. In the San Joa-
quin Valley we have not found it FlG 9 tussock-okas*-^^ abides, Torr-

farther north than the Tulare (From Division of Agrostology, U. S. Dept. Agr.)

plains, although east of the Sierra it occurs near Reno. Coville observes
that in the Death Valley region "it is confined principally to altitudes
below 1,000 meters" (3,280 feet). Hillman, however, reports it from near
Reno, Nevada, at an altitude which cannot be much less than 4,500 feet.
As we have received requests for precise information as to the localities
in which this grass grows, from persons desiring to obtain seed for trial,
the following list is given: Tulare plains, a few miles southeast of
Tulare; a few miles south of Bakersfield; in the Antelope Valley; along
the road from Rosamond to Lancaster, and in alkali sinks about the
Leonis Valley between Lancaster and Elizabeth Lake. It is reported
by Coville from Death Valley, Pahrump Valley, Resting-Springs Valley?

* So-called because it grows in large clumps or tussocks, which feature unfortunately
is not indicated in the illustration.

38 —

Owens River Valley, and other points in the desert region southeast of
the Sierra Nevada. It is also recorded from near Barstow and other
points in San Bernardino County; in dry soils near Los Angeles, and
from San Diego County.

GREASEWOOD* (Sarcobatus v ermicu I 'atus (Hook) Torr.); Fig. 10.

Through the courteous cooperation of Prof. F. H. Hillman, Botanist to
the Nevada Agricultural Experiment Station at Reno, we have obtained
three series of samples of Greasewood soil from that vicinity. These sam-

Fig. 10. Greasewood (proper)— Sarcobatus vermicutatus (Hook) Torr.

A. Appearance of a branch when not in blossom.

B. Spiny branchlet from the same.

C. Branchlet bearing cones of male flowers.

D. Cone of male flowers enlarged.

E. Branch bearing fruits.

F. Cluster of fruits enlarged.

G. Vertical section through a fruit, showing the seed with its

curved embryo, (enlarged).

* This is the true Greasewood of the desert region east of the Sierra Nevada, and not
either of the plants known under that name in the San Joaquin Valley and in Southern
California.

— 39 —

pies show that where the Greasewood shrubs are thinly scattered and
stunted in growth, the salt content per acre to the depth of three feet
is about 2,400 pounds, of which over one half consists of the corrosive
carbonates. Where a luxuriant growth occurs the total salts per acre
vary from 38,000 to 58,500 pounds, with 18,700 pounds of salsoda and
920 to 3,680 pounds of common salt; the relative percentage of the inju-
rious salsoda is thus invariably high. The common salt is low and the
neutral glauber salt is variable. This plant therefore always indicates
the presence of "black alkali."

Greasewood is distinctly a plant of the Great Basin, only reaching
California in the adjacent counties of Lassen. Alpine, Mono, and
northern Inyo. It is very abundant on the lower levels of Honey Lake
Valley.

DWARF SAMPHIRE (Salicornia subterminalis, Parish, and other species of
the interior) ; Fig. 11.

The two or three species of Dwarf Samphire which grow in the interior
valleys of the State are nowhere very abundant in those portions

Fig. 11. Dwarf Samphire— Salicornia subterminalis, Parish.

— 40 —

of the alkali region which we have thus far investigated. Wherever the
species do occur, however, they are confined to such very strongly saline
soils that they may be considered valuable indicative plants. We have
as yet only one full set of samples of Dwarf Samphire soil. This shows
the total salt content to amount to 441,880 pounds per acre in a depth of
four feet. The neutral glauber salt amounts to 314,000 pounds, almost
as much as in Tussock-grass soil ; common salt up to 1 25,640 pounds, while
the salsoda varies from 2,200 to 12,000. We may consider this plant as
indicative of almost the highest percentage of common salt, glauber
salt, and total salts. Like the preceding species, it indicates "white"
salts in excessive amounts, and a subsoil too wet for the Australian
saltbush.

Salicornia subterminalis occurs in San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles,
and Kern counties. S. herbacea (L.) is reported from Riverside County,
and from the margin of Tehachapi Lake, Kern County. S. mucronata
(Bigelow) occurs in San Diego County; and a fourth species is found
in the Antelope Valley, Los Angeles County; near Bakersfield, Kern
County; and at Byron Springs, Contra Costa County. These inland
species all differ materially in habit and botanical characters from the
one common in submerged salt marshes along the seashore, but all alike
indicate strongly saline soils.

BUSHY SAMPHIRE (Allenrolfea occidentalis (Wats.) Ktze.); Fig. 12.

This plant is locally called greasewood, but as this name is much more
commonly used for Sarcobatus vermiculatus, it seems best to call Allen-
rolfea "bushy samphire," as it closely resembles the true samphire {Sali-
cornia).

Bushy Samphire usually grows in low sinks, in soil which in winter
is excessively wet and in summer becomes a "dry bog." Wherever the
plant grows luxuriantly the salt content is invariably high, the total
salts varying from 327,000 pounds per acre, to a depth of three feet, to
494,520 pounds in four feet. The salts consist mainly of glauber and
common salts (a maximum of about 275,000 pounds of each); salsoda
varies from 2,360 to 4,800 pounds per acre. The percentage of common
salt and total salts is higher than for any other plant investigated, and the
glauber salt is almost proportionate. The areas over which this plant
grows must therefore be considered as among the most hopeless of alkali
lands, for although its salts are "white," submergence during winter
precludes the growth of Australian saltbush.

Bushy Samphire is a common plant in alkali soils in the upper San
Joaquin Valley, around Bakersfield and Delano; a few stunted bushes
occur near the margin of Tulare Lake, west of Tulare, but at that point
it appears to be dying out. It also occurs on the east slope of Liver-
more Pass, and in an alkali sink in a pocket of the hills at Byron

Fig. 12. Bushy Samphire— AUenrolfea occidentalis (Wats.) Ktze.
[Called "Greasewood" in San Joaquin Valley.]

— 42 —

Springs, Contra Costa County. In the Death Valley region the plant
appears to be very abundant, occupying an area considerably more
southern than what appears to be the southerly limit of Greasewood
(Sarcobatus).

SALTWORT (Suaeda Torreyana, Wats., S. suffrutescens, Wats., and perhaps
one other species); Fig. 13.

Samples of Saltwort soil from Bakersfield, Kern County, and Byron
Springs, Contra Costa County, taken to a depth of one foot and three
feet respectively, show that this plant grows luxuriantly in a soil con-

Fig. 13. Saltwort— Suaeda Torreyana, Wats.

taining 130,000 pounds of salts per acre in the first foot, and with
10,480 pounds of the noxious salsoda, and 39,760 pounds of common
salt in three feet ; while only a sparse growth is found on soils contain-
ing only 3,700 pounds of salts in three feet. It thus appears to indicate
a lower percentage of salsoda than does Greasewood, but a higher per-
centage than Bushy Samphire. Further investigation is necessary
to determine the exact relation of the different salts to the growth
of the plant, and as to whether carbonates always occur in large quantity;
but enough data have been gathered to show that a luxuriant growth

of Saltwort indicates a soil practically irreclaimable except at the ex-
pense of leaching.

Suaeda Torreyana occurs in abundance in certain alkali soils near
Bakersfield, Kern County; in a large alkali sink near Colusa Junction,
Colusa County; in Honey Lake Valley, Lassen County; Antelope Valley,
Kern County; and in the vicinity of San Bernardino. Coville reports
having collected it at Lone Pine, Inyo County. The closely related
species, S. suffrutescens, only to be distinguished by an expert botanist,
occurs in abundance in the alkali soils of the Mojave Desert, Death
Valley, the Tulare plains, and near Bakersfield. The different species
of Saltwort grow in similar habitats, and it is probable that the condi-
tion of the soil is approximately the same for each species. It thus
indicates land that while not capable of bearing ordinary crops, will
probably allow the Australian saltbush to succeed, at least with the aid
of some gypsum.

ALKALI-HEATH (Frankenia grandifolia campestris, Gray) ; Fig. 14.

Alkali-heath is perhaps the most widely distributed of any of our
California alkali plants. Its perennial, deep-rooting habit of growth,
and flexible, somewhat wiry
rootstock, which enables it
to persist even in cultivated
ground, render it a valuable
plant as an alkali indicator.
The salt content where Al-
kali-heath grows luxuri-
antly is invariably high,
ranging from 64,000 to
282,000 pounds per acre;
salsoda varies from 680 to
19,590 pounds; common
salt ranges from 5,000 to
10,000 pounds. Such soils
would not be benefited by
the application of gypsum,
as the salts are already

largely in the neutral State. FlG - 14 - Alkali- he \TH.—Frankenia grandifolia campeotris,

Of useful plants only Salt-
bushes and Tussock-grass are likely to flourish in such lands.

While Alkali-heath is thus one of the most alkali-tolerant plants, it
is at the same time capable of growth with a minimum of salts (total
salts 3,700 pounds, salsoda 680 pounds). Where only a sparse growth
of this plant occurs, therefore, the land should not be condemned until
a chemical examination of the soil has been made.

Alkali-heath is found on soils of very varying physical texture and
degrees of moisture; while on soils of uniform texture and moisture, but
differing in chemical composition, it varies with the varying salt-
content.

It has been found that Australian Saltbush (Atriplex semibaccata)
can be successfully grown on the Colusa County "goose lands," on soil
producing a medium crop of Alkali-heath; it remains to be shown
whether it will do equally well on soils producing a dense and luxuriant
growth of the same.

Alkali-heath is so widely distributed throughout the interior vallej^s
of California that it would be superfluous to give a list of the localities
in which it occurs. A closely related form is found in salt marshes
along the coast, differing from that of the interior principally in its
much broader leaves.

CRESSA (Cressa cretica truxillensis, Choisy); Fig. 15.

Cressa soils show a low percentage of the noxious salsoda, but com-
paratively heavy total salts
( 161,000 to 282,000 pounds per
acre.) Common salt varies
from 5,760 to 20,840 pounds
per acre in four feet. The
maximum is lower than in
the case of Alkali-heath, but
Cressa seems to be much more
closely restricted to strong
alkali than does the former
species. Cressa appears to be
as widely distributed through
the interior valleys of the State
as Alkali-heath. It is a cos-
mopolitan plant, occurring, as
its name indicates, on the Ion-
ian Isles, as well as in North
Africa, Syria, and in other
arid countries of the world.

Fl<

15. Cressa — Cressa cretica truxillensis, Choisy.

Relative Tolerance of the Different Species.

In order to determine the relative nature of the soils characterized
by each of the above-named plants, Mr. Davy has prepared the follow-
ing table, in which the column marked optimum shows, as nearly as
possible with our present knowledge of the subject, the condition of the
soil where each species grows in about equal luxuriance. For Saltwort
and Dwarf Samphire we have not yet been able to obtain as thoroughly
characteristic soil samples as could be desired, but we hope to be able to
do so during the coming season.

- 45 —

It must be understood that the optimum indicates the condition under
which the plant has been found at its greatest luxuriance — where it is
evidently "at home" — ; whereas the maximum and minimum have
sometimes been obtained where the plants were more or less stunted in
growth and sparingly scattered over the ground.

Table Showing Maximum, Optimum, and Minimum of Salts Tolekated by Each of
the Several Alkali Plants.

Pounds Per Acre.

Optimum.

Maximum.

Minimum.

Bushy Samphire .
Dwarf Samphires.

Alkali-heath

Total Salts.

Cressa

Saltworts

Greasewood ..
Tussock-grass

Tussock-grass
Alkali-heath..

Carbonates (Salsoda).

Greasewood .

Dwarf Samphires.

Saltworts

Cressa

Bushy Samphire .

Chlorids (Common salt).

Bushy Samphire

Dwarf Samphires

Saltworts

Cressa.

Alkali-heath

Tussock-grass
Greasewood _.

Sulphates (Glauber salt).

Dwarf Samphires. .j

Bushy Samphire

Cressa

Alkali-heath .

Saltworts

Greasewood . .
Tussock-grass

494,520

441,880

281,960)

64,300 I"

281,960

130,000

58,560

49,000

23,000

*19,590)

680 I

18,720

12,120

10,480

5,440

4,800

212,080

125,640

39,760

20,840

10,180)

5,760f

6,200

3,680

314,040

277,640

275,520

275,520)

34,530*

44,160

36,160

19,640

494,520
441,880

499,040

281,960

153,020

58,560

499,040

44,460

19,590

18,720

12,120

5,440

4,800

275,160

125,640

52,900

20,840

212,080

172,800
3,680

314,040
277,640
275,520

323,200

104,040

36,160

323,200

135,060
441,880

3,720

161,160

3,720

2,400

49,000

3,040

680

1,280
2,200
1,120
680
1,500

56,800

125,640

1,040

5,760

1,040

3,530
160

314,040

50,080

134,880

1,560

960

19,640

* This plant grows with equal luxuriance in soils containing only G80 pounds of carbonates.

In these tables the sequence of the different plants has been arranged
so that in each case the species having the highest optimum comes at

— 46 —

the head of the list. Arranged in this way the tables show that where
these plants grow in luxuriance they may be considered indicative of
the following conditions :

Total Salts Indicators. — The Samphires, Alkali-heath, and Cressa are
all indicative of excessive total salts. Saltwort, Greasewood, and
Tussock-grass indicate much lower total salt-content; indeed, the
maximum of the two latter plants ( Greasewood and Tussock-grass) is
so low that the application of gypsum (land-plaster) would in some
cases (e. g. the Tussock-grass lands near Bakersfield) render the soil
adapted to the cultivation of Modiola and Australian Saltbush.

Salsoda Indicators. — It is noticeable that the relative position of the
different species in the columns of optimum and maximum is more
uniform in the salsoda table than in any other; and whether we
arrange the sequence of the plants according to the optimum or to
the maximum, the same relative position is maintained. This is in
complete accord with what our knowledge of the effect of salsoda on
vegetable life would lead us to expect; being by far the most injurious
of the alkali salts, the range of tolerance is much smaller, and the limits
are much more clearly defined than in the case of the other salts.

Luxuriant growths of Tussock-grass and Greasewood are invariably
indicative of high percentages of carbonates, but in such cases the total
salt percentage is sometimes so low that the application of gypsum (land-
plaster) would render the land fit for the cultivation of Modiola or even
Australian Saltbush, as noted above. It must be borne in mind, how-
ever, that where Tussock-grass grows but sparsely, the total salt-content
may reach 499,000 pounds, an amount rendering the land utterly worth-
less for agricultural purposes unless the surplus salts can be removed.

Alkali-heath cannot be taken as an accurate gauge of the salsoda
content, as it grows with equal luxuriance on soils containing respect-
ively 680 and 19,590 pounds to the acre, of this salt.

The Samphires and Saltworts are relatively low down in the carbonate
table, and may be taken to indicate a comparatively low percentage of
" black alkali."

Neutral-Salt Indicators. — The Samphires and Saltworts head the
neutral-salt tables, and are reliable indicators of excessively high per-
centages both of glauber salt and of common salt. Saltwort comes
next to Samphire in the common-salt table, but is not quite such a
good guide to the glauber salt.

Luxuriant growths of Alkali-heath, Greasewood, and Tussock-grass
indicate low percentages of the neutral salts, but these plants will some-
times tolerate (in a sparse state of growth) very high percentages.