The La Jara chronicle., 1911-04-14
TIE San LUIS VALLEY AND
ITS Chief CHARACTERISTICS


fence, the proper methods of arti-
f,cial use of water to secure the
best results, and it is a fact that
requires no argument that the
use of water for growing crops
that can be controlled by human
agency, is more to be relied upon
than the vagaries of season.
Wherever in the San Luis Val
the growing of crops, the results
from an yricultural standpoint
ley water has been employed in
One popularity of the soil of
the San Luis Valley not to be
oyerlo oked, is that it represents
the sedimentary deposit Of ages,
making it as rich naturally, as
the alluviun deposits of the
Nile have made its contiguous
land.
have been little less that startling,
and the acreage production of
reals, potatoes, field peas, and
alfalfa, has been SO great as to
emphasize the future possibili-
ties of large agricultural profits
from this entire section.
Statements from the uniformed
to the effect that you cannot
grow crops from soil where the
presence of alkali is noted, needs
to be radically revised, as moth
ing can be farther from the truth
or the facts in the matter.
AllIali is a class of salts that
are both characteristic and a nee
essary ingredient to all soil,
and without it the chemical ele-
ments to a producing soil are
lacking.
Its presence in an arid country,
in larger quantities, is very easi-
ly accounted for, and it would b,
surprising if it We're absent.
With only a limited rain fall,
this natural precipitation is suf-
ficient to dissolve and wash away
these surface accumulations of
salt that are all the while seek
ing the surface, whether in New
England or Colorado, and where
that surface accumulation is per-
mitted to remain and form a
crust then indeed will it by reason
of its excess, interfere with vege-
table growth.
Al such times, and in such
places as this condition is found
to exist, then must it be artifici-
ally removed, as we cannot rely
upon natural precipitation to do
it, any more than we can depend
upon rain fall to irrigate an arid
country.
Water is artificially introduced
for the purposes of irrigation,
therefore, whenever it becomes
necessary to do it, we must en-
ploy the converse of IRRIGATION.
or drainage, to dispose of the ac-
cumulations of alkali, and this is
the last process of reclamation,
but it by no manner of means
follows that all soil requires it,
as the land may so lay that it
drains itself, or the passage
through it of some natural de-
preston or flowing stream, per-
forms the same function.
Let us examine the reasons
for this, for it is very simple :;
the land when naturally or arti-
ficially drained has a lower wat
er level, and hence through the
process of percolation these salt
solutions do not so readily find
their way to the surface, which
when the moisture evaporates
leaves the salt.
With bitches properly spaced
in a land area that may be af-
fected, the water level is low
cred, and then by flooding the
land you dissolve and wash away
the accumulations of alkali into
the bitches which carry it away,
which is precisely the office that
an ample natural rain fall would
perform.
The United States government
has conducted Investigations and
experiments on the lines here
indicated for number of years,
over widely scattered sections of
arid country and have vet to re-