OCR Text |
Show Much of the soil, jn this country is strongly impregnated with alkali and it is often quite a serious problem to know just how to utilize util-ize it Some plats improve by cultivation, while low-lying plats are often ruined by the leaching of the mineral from others of a more elevated location. The Ogdcn Standard recently contained the following . on the' subject of alkali lands': ' " ';' :: , Experiments 'at the government agricultural stations, ; which are made for the purpose of determining determin-ing th e 1 best crops to grow on alkali soil or withstand drouths are always of great interest to the farmers of this interior region. Lately the experiment station at Bakersfield, California, has been testing , two ; Australian . forage plants, one a salt brush, known as Autriplex, and the other Modiola. Both plants have given good results, re-sults, but especially is this true of Modiola. The station's, bulletin say a the. seeds of the . Modiola plant; placed in black alkali soil yielded about three tons of dry feed per acre. The write b in the bulletin sums up the merits of the plant in this manner: "This plant is green all the yeari stands frost better than alfalfa, will groWi without with-out care, will stand drouth, is not killed by water, will grow on alkali ground, is a ; good pasture - for stock, yielding a- big flow: of the best milk,, . and so possess the ground that troublesome ' weeds cannot find a place . to grow." He then says, that these qualities he has not observed . in any other one plant "and they are ample to commend com-mend for .jit at least a trial in many places where ; the; . conditions are favorable." .' - . |