Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-12-24

with and change the character Of all
the soils in the valleys. They are not only
kind enough to send us down these Ingredi-
ents, but they undertake to instruct us In the
use Of them. They tell us that mixing sou
will be beneficial to our lands. Ii not I'M
mediately, certainly in the near or distant
future. They cite the history OF Egypt and
of the countries along the Ganges river and
the river Pc, as examples of what the valleys
of the Sacramento and its tributaries
NAV become by a good supply of the
washings they are sending down to US.
Now. while we freely admit that some Of our
fine black mucky soils may be improved by
an application of proper quantity Of sand,
even VIXEN coming direct from the mines,
still we cannot agree to the proposition that
an indiscriminate mixture of an indefinite
amount of this sand to cur valley lands will
be beneficial On the contrary, noswithstand-
ing the teachings and practices of our mining
friends, we know that such indiscriminate
mixture or covering up Of cur old lands with
the sands they are sending us will
etiectuslly and permanently ruin all our soils
in the valleys. II we could regulate the
time and quantity of this mixing and direct
Tire localities OF the deposits, we would be
the last to complain of our neighbors above
US. We would then bring down onto our
black adobe soil little of the coarse sand
say one or two and in some places three
inches dsep-and we would pillow this in and
cross plow and cultivate it till it
was thoroughly mixed. We should get
a benefit, not in the way of fer
tility or chemical improvement, but We
would improve the mechanical texture Of the
soil We would thus prepare it the better to
receive air and the heat of the SUP. and make
it easier worked and render it less liable to
bake and become crusted after rains. But II,
instead Of ole or two or three inches. our
friends are so generous as to send US one or
two or three feet of this sand to be spread out
over any portion of our farms that the water
may chance to deposit it, then our old lands
are ruined and we have instead mere uI-
productive surface of to US valueless land.
We could use to good advantage small
quantity of the coarse granite sand In mixing
in with our alksli spots. 1t would not only
improve the mechanical structure of our soil,
but it would dilute the alllali to SEINE extent,
aad thus produce both mechanical and
chemical improvement. Il might also, by
opening and rendering the soil more porous,
allow the rain-water that falls upon 1t to run
into it, and thus wash out or from the surface
some portion of the alkaIi salts, and thus pro-
duce an improvement. But we prefer the
worst aIkali soil that can be found in the
valleys to unproductive sand or fine material
deposits deficient in all the necessary ingre
dents to production as the slickens from the
deep mines uniformly are. Though the
farmers of the river bottoms have not had the
advantages of agricultural schools and teach
ers versed in agricultural chemistry, still they
know better what their lands need than the
miners do, and they prefer to pay for fertili-
zers that will improve their lands than to be
furnished free with mixtures that are sure
to ruin them when applied in uncomfortable
quantities. The natural washipgs of the
vast watershed of the Sacramento valley,
coming down from the forests above, bring
ing with it the wash Of decayed vegetation
and animal droppipgs and being spread over
the lands by the annral floods, would be an
undoubted advantage TO all the soil 80 covered,
so far as keeping up its supply OF fertilizers.
1t is this natural wash for ages that has made
valley lands and river bottoms SO rich in pro-
duction, and this same natural wash would
keep up the fertility of the soil as the wash
in2s of the Nile keep up the fertility of that
valley. But when we ask for and are entitled
to bread, it does not follow that stones will
benef! u. A small quantity of medicine may
be good, while an overdose will kill. In this
respect science and experience agree. Pro-
lessor Hilgard has analysed some of the de-
posits from the rivers flowing from the mines
and has found that they contain so small a
proportion of vegetable matter as to be abb
solutely unproductive and valueless for agri-
cultural purposes.