, 1892-01-27

of it were evaported from the surface of
the ground, it would leave a salty crust
1850 of an inch in thickness. But as "a
part of the water would certainly run off
in the streams, and rs much of it, diluted
with the fresh water of the rains, would
soak into the ground, these salty ingredients
would become intimately mixed with at
least IL foot OF the surface soil, and would
form less than one-ffteenth of one per cent.
of he weight of that soil.
These ingredient are salts of lime, magne-
STA, potash and soda. Now DR.. Bruckner, in q
work on American manures, gives the analy-
sis of a soil in Holland, which he pronoun-
ces remarkably rich,'' and says that few
soils in the world can compare with it in fur
nishing the raw material for producing bread
and meat" That soil according to DR..
Bruckner, and Prof. Samuel w. Johnson Of
Yale College quotes the same analysis, con-
tanned over Is per cent. of these same idgre-
dents, or 225 times as much as six inches
Of ~artesian water would give to a foot of our
soil in a year. That is. it would take 225
years of irrigation to give to our soil as much
of these ingredients as the rich soil Of Hol-
land already possesses.
If the dry soil, obtained by evaporating to
drYness the water from one of these ~artesian
wells of the James River Valley, be mixed
with fifty times it's weight of sand and clay
and the proper amount of vegetable matter, q
very productive soil will be formed.
Furthermore, every ingredient of these ar
tesian we'll salts enters into the tissues OF
plants, and is a necessary food for many of
them. The ash of the oat contains "a per
cent. of potash and soda, s. 5 per cent. Of
lime and 2. 3 per cent of magnesia.
Six inches of average artesian water would
deposit in the surface soil-if none were
washed away into the streams or carried into
the depths Of the g~round-about 9, 700 pounds
of sodium, potassium and magnesium salts
per acre. OF this material q crop Of fax or Of
wheat will take out of the soil from 100 to200
pounds a crop Of potatoes will consume 400
pounds. a crop Of mangels 800 pounds; and
q crop otturnipS 900 pounds. With aver
age crops it would take more than fifty years
of a|rtesian we'll irrigation for these salts to
accumulate in the soil until they should equal
in quantity the amount found by Professor
Johnson in a good wheat soil of Scotland.
Prof. johnson, who is the highest authority
on agricultural chemistry, recently told the
writer that he saw no reason to fear that the
mineral Ingredients of these waters, especial
ly when diluted with the fresh waters of our
rainfall, would be harmful to vegetation. BE
also suggested. what is very likely to prove
true, that as more wells are opened up, the
increased flow will have tendency to dimin-
ish the cent. OF mineral ingredients in the
water.
DR.. G|oessman, Director of the Massachu-
sets State Agricultural Experiment Station,
and a high authority on such questions, also
lately expressed to the writer, in emphatic
tones, his belief that our artesian waters will
be only useful.
The residents of Yankton have used arto-
sian water freely now for several years for
watering their lawns, trees and gardens. an
without any appearance of harm.
At any rate, the diff culties and the dangers
from artesian irrigation are at most so slight
as compared with those of drouth, that no one
need hesitate on that account to make the
experiment.-LouiSiand Planter.