The Cook County herald., 1903-10-17
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Reeia'ming Alkaii Land.


In the United States and Canada, rs
we'll as in many other countries Of
the world, there are great stretches of
land that are unfertile due to a too
great proportion of salt or alkali in
them. Usually these tracts of land
are quite low, and some of them have
been formerly beds of lakes and ponds.
There are other tracts of land that
have developed alkan spots from hav-
ing being too long under a system of
irrigation that permitted the salt and
alkau to rise in the soil as result OF
capillary attraction. It is therefore of
Interest to American farmers to know
what Is being done in the matter of
The reclamation Of such lands in for
eign countries.
Egypt is the country that is at pres
ent attracting the most attention in
this regard. Here some of the problems
are being worked out. This has not
been an easy matter. Quite number
OF years ago, French company
bought 10000 acres Of this land, and
sunk $4,500,000 in an attempt to re-
claim 1t, but were unsuccessful. Yet
the land they handled was and is as
easily reclaimed as any of the other
land that has been reclaimed and
made profitable. They showed how
not to do it, and other companies
profited by their mistakes. The causes
OF their failure were first, the bitches
were not close enough together to
permit OF rapid washing of the soil.
The bitches were about 1000 feet
apart when they should have been
not more than $50. Second, the bitches
should have followed the slope of the
land. They were actually laid out on
rectangular plan regardless of slope.
Third, reclamation was attempted on
too large scale, and lacked thorough
ness. Fourth, the land was put into
such crops as cotton before it was
sweetened-freed from it's alkaH and
salt. This land is now in process of
being reclaimed under correct
methods.
On the other hand the success tn re-
claiming land in Egypt has been most
gratifying and profitable. An English
company obtained a grant of $4,000
acres OF this worthless alkali land and
invested $3.50 per acre in its reclama-
ton. The land now brings an annual
rental of about $25 per acre and has
a value Of over 5000 per acre, or a
total of over $2,500,o00. The English
company declared dividends of As
per cent last year. The soil before
drainage was described as heavy,
dense, sticky, black: clay, apparently
very impervious to water and difficult
to underdrain. In fact the whole as
pect of the land is one of utter hope
tessness, and none but the most san
guine of agricultural engineers would
have undertaken it's reclamation:
That land is now bright with grow
ing crops and productive of an i'm
mense revenue.
The most effective method of rid
ding the land of it's surplus salt and
a1kali is found to be flooding, with tile
drains. The drains are placed 80
inches deep and IS feet apart, and the
cost is $50 per acre. This is the lat
est and pest method, but is not the
method by which most of the Egyptian
lands have been SO far reclaimed.
That method has been to use open
bitches and food the land for months
at a time till the salts have soaked
out. The water is then drained off.
In some cases it has taken two
years to sufficiently. drain The soil of
it's salts to make the land productive.
American farmers will of course pre-
fer the tile drains to the open bitches,
as open bitches are a nuisance and
keep much of the land out of cult
vation. Besides, they have to be
larger and cost more to dig. A tile
drain does not have to be cleaned out
frequently, as is the case with open
ditches. An experiment of this kind