The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-09-15
THE DANGER IN IRRIGATION.
ALKALI RISES IN ARID LANDS
AND RUINS THE FARMS.
Thousands Of Farms Abandoned Because
OF Alkali Rising in the sOii-Babylon
Fell ny the AIksIIzatiOn Of Mesopo'
tamia-H0w the Nile Valley Escapes.

tamia-HOw the Nile Valley Escapes.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 14.-"There is one
phase of the irrigation question:, SAID
well-known Government scientist, thaI
il going to give trouble sooner or later
Just now it is only safe and comfortable
to speak OF it in an academic way. There
are too many boomers in the irrigation
spirit to make it wise to throw cold water
on their ctrines.
But here il fact which has been OBJ
served for centuries. Genuinely ARD
countries are always ruined sooner or
later by irrigation. Permanently success
full irrigation is possible only in what we
call humid or semi-humid regions, where
the drainage is natural from clouds to the
sea.
"In the arid country the soil is prac-
ticaly never wet down more than Tour
or five feet. In the millions of acres which
it is now proposed TO reclaim there mas never
been at work the process OF Percoiat1on
down through the underlying rock and SOIL
which would drain from the land obnoxious
constituent elements. With soil, as with
animal life, there must be process IKE
perspiration which shall carry on waste
salts Otherwise they accumulate and IN
excess are harmful. In all soils there are
chemicals, some of which are plant foods
and some plant poisons. With natural
drainage condit ions any excess OF injurious
salts would be carried of. But without
IL they accumulate.
"Now when the water, either OF rainfall
or from irrigato ion. soaks down rev leet
Into the surface soil and then slowly ny
capillary &C ton rises to the surface ana Ii
evaporated or drunk up by growing planss
it lifts with it the salts and there follows
a gradual increase OF salts or alkali near
the surface.
in the average virgin soil of the arid
region, in such regions as Arizona or New
Mexico for Instance, there Is usually two
hundredths of per cent. of alkali and often
us high as nine -hundredths. The waters
used in irriget ion contain alkal. ms
fact, and the concentration OF the saNs
in the soil by evaporation, are together
continually increasing the alkali deposits
In hot weather especially the conditions
are highly significant Of trouble. EVapora-
ton is great, the water in the streams gets
low and the proportion OF salts increases
This is the time Of all periods or the year
when the water is needed Tor irrigation
L
show 1877 parts Of soluble salts in 100000
parts of water. This is acutely danger
ols to plant growth.
-An acre-foot of such water would con-
tain nearly two tons OF salt. Inc satS
follow the water and are gradually earned
to the surface OF the soil and deposited
there. II ii invariably the case that W here
here is scant supply Of water, as there
is even in the Lest conditions, the roots
Of most crops, and especially OF trees,
hug the upper few inches Of the soil, where
the alkaii accumulates and in time Kills
them.
THAT is the story II there could be
flooding of the soil. so that the water would
20 on down to bedrock and run of under
ground TO the sea. the salts that are In
furious would be in time taken away and
the soil would become sweeter and sweeter
wear after year. This is really what takes
place in the eastern portion Of the country.
Scientific irrigation is far more Inn
portant in the East than In the West There
with irrigation the Eastern farmer could
usually double bis crop, and without re-
moving fertility or injuring his ground
other things being equal With leguminous
crops and irrigation here the farmer can
forever convert air Tor the nitrogen OF it,
which is the same thing into flesh. The
process is open TO no doubt ana Is gong
on every uiE St'tSHSihiiS'
Science will have great problem be-
fore it when the arid regions have 10y short
sighted boomin been filed up with popu-
lation "! .ich will finally discover that what
at first seems to be a most successful proc
ess Of farming is a delusion--that what
they thought was fruit Is in the end ashes
Science must 20 to work to find way to
remove the excess of alkali from the soil.
| Thousands Of fine farms have been aban-
doned because OF alkali rising" In the soil.
Thousands more will be abandoned in the
same wav. and, unlike the abandoned farms
of New England, they will never be sought
again by any one desiring to get back to
Mother Earth.
BABYLON fell by the alkalization Of Meso-
potamia The valley Of the Nile has escaped
because there takes place there every year
thorough flooding, which washes down
through the lowest depths of the soil and
4, cleans it OF all salts that are obnoxious.
There are few places In our Western country
where this can be secured, 1t is possibly
going on around Salt Lake and the lake is
getting more and more salt every year.
Complete irrigation where the water goes
down through the whole soil and flows on
over the rock 10 the sea, is safe and may
be followed as a perpetual means OF pro-
ducing large crops economically and
profit ably Under other conditions, unless
some remedy is discovered for removing
alkali the result is disast rous in the end
,pI irn vii a ,ly corpes eooD or late