The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-02-02


cent the limit of most cultivated plants
Is reached. Further concentration kills
all our ordinary agricultural plants.
It was important to know the amount
of soluble salts in the principal types of
soil, which had been kept under APP
proximately the same conditions as to
exposure, cropping and irrigation. 1t
and distribution of the salts above the
ditch where the land had never heen
irrigated and in the irrigated districts,
and it was Furthermore important to
study the distribution of the salts in
soils which had been or were now be-
ing ruined by the presence of alkali.
AS a result of the investigations at
Billings it was found that plants could
just exist with 0.45 of 1 per cent. of
the soluble salts present, equivalent TO
about $4,000 pounds per acre foot, and
this is taken as the limit of plant pro-
duction. The soluble salt content Of
soils in the humid portion of the United
States ranges from so pounds per acre
foot in the sandy soils of the Atlantic
coast to as much as 5000 or 1000 pounds
in some of the heavier agricultural soils.
The average amount would be consid-
erably less than 1000 pounds per acre
foot.
Prof whitney continues: "Some Of
cept the prevailing conditions and TO
look for crops like the Australian salt
grass, which will grow in these alkali
fats and wet soils. 1t is wrong to ac-
cept these conditions however, and de-
pend upon makeshifts, when the condi-
tions ought in the first place to have
been prevented and ought now to be re-
moved by radical and energetic meth
DDS of drainage or through better and
al OIL of iyyi
first harmful effects observed in these
sandy soils Is caused by an excess of
water, and If this is not Immediately
lessened further damage will result
from the accumulation of soluble salts.
If the excess OF water Is soon removed
no permanent damage will result.
THE heavier type of soil was shown
to be derived from the disintegration of
the shale. The still undecomposed shale
in the bluffs on the south side Of the
valley was found to be penetrated in
every direction with veins of gypsum
and the soft shale itself to be per-
meated with large quantities of sodium
and magnesium sulphates. The soils
resulting from the disintegration of the
shale form a heavy, sticky, blue clay
quite impervious to water. The drain
age is SO slow through this fine, i'm
pervious material that large quantities
of the salts remain in the soil.
ION account of the poor drainage and
the slow movement Of the suhsoil wa
tiers through this material there is
great danger of over-irrigation, and the
problem of irrigation, which is easy On
the well-drained, sandy lands, becomes
far more complicated and much more
difficult to manage on these heavy
gumbo soils. Great care has to be ia
ken, not only in the application of WA
ter, but in the actual cultivation of
these soils, as they are liable to be ruin
ed for a time at least for alfalfa.
1.-THE formation of these alkali flats
is an evidence of the effort of nature to
correct the faults of our crude system
of irrigation. The salts are being car
ried off into the natural drainage Of
the country, but the process is very
slow and the excess of seepage water
and the salts themselves collect in these
places on account Of the inability of the
soil to let them pass as rapidly as the
excess of water ls supplied This sug-
gests the only feasible method of re-
claiming these lands and, indeed, of
preventing the accumulation of the
salts which will occur except under the
most careful and judicious methods of
applying water. The only way is to
put in an efficient system of drains.
preferably of underground tile drains.
It is urged against this idea that the
land is not worth the cost Of the invest
ment in putting in a system of tile
drains. 1t may or may not be profitable
at this time to protect the lands from de-
struction and to reclaim those that have
been destroyed. 1t may be cheaper to
move off into new areas, but the time
will come, if it has not already come,
when the land in the Yellowstone val
ley and in similar situations will be
worth the care and expense necessary
to protect it from ultimate destruction.
The amount of money now invested in
the Yellowstone valley is enormous, and
the continuance of prosperity is entire
taken in the method of irrigating the
lands. Property worth thousands of
dollars may be ruined in a few years
and become utterly worthless.
'"The Investigations point clearly to
the natural methods of preventing this
injury and of retaining the lands
when once the injury has occurred.
There Is no question that the injury is
due to the TRANSPORTATION and local ac-
emulation of the salts which were
formerly well distributed in the
soils of the valley. Alkali has only been
troublesome here after eight or 10 years
of irrigation. The trouble is always
preceded by an accumulation of seepage
waters, followed in few years by the
alkali incrustations on the surface of
the land. Where the damage has been
done. or where the conditions are so
imminent that ultimate ruin can be
foreseen, the logical method of reclaim
alton Is in providing adequate systems
of drainage to carry off the excess of
water and the accumulated salts. This
is expensive, but it is the only thing in
this case to hasten the slow processes
of nature, which are entirely inadequate