Show BEAU BEAR RIVER VALLEY con continued kinuyd from last issue our ou r so soils are made up of small particles not packed close and aad solid but resting g in and against each other at a few points with a large percentage I 1 of space between and around each this space is generally spoken of as the voids and is about 50 per cent of the volume of the soil when water Is Is present about hall half of this space Is filled with water clinging to the grains in fact there is a complete film of water around each particle on oa which the laws of gravity do not act this capillary water or moisture constitutes utes from 1 I to 25 per cent of the voids by vol 1 ume e when soils are saturated water wafer is free to obey laws of I 1 gravity and does fow flow dov down r an and d adiong among the soil particles until it is caught ca tight or held up by some impervious subsoil or artificial obstruction even when there is no hard pan to a considerable depth and the ground round has a decided slope to some natural outlet the underground under round stream overflows its banks at a some spot and flows out to the surface of the ground round there it is often held in a slight depression for weeks or months until the he underground course is relieved and the surface dries what happens to ais abis water which is standing either above the surface or a few inches below for every foot so exposed evaporation at the rate of 6 to 7 feet in depth per year goes on thus the water is constantly changing in its s slow low motion through the soils above it Is constantly consi antly dissolving the precious plant food and carrying it along een even to the wet spot or pond here the water which goes off 05 by evaporation is nearly pure part of the plant food w which aich was intended for the higher grounds is now deposited in the lower grounds at t first this condition is called sub irrig irrigation gation the farmer congratulates himself on not having to irrigate and upon the luxuriant crop this condition prevails for a few years sometimes the concentration cent ration of alkali is so slow that it is many years before the change comes in some gome instances the time at which the ground dries in the spring keeps getting later until the remaining season is not long enough to produce a crop and the alkali is not yet I 1 in excess the lard land Is then said to be waterlogged water logged again the alkali is deposited is in su sufficient cleat quantity in ia on or two years after the water shows to prevent tte the growth of any vegetation an ideal solution for this condition would be toL diffuse and redistribute the abundance of plant food which is concentrated in sufficient quantities to prevent plant life I 1 am indebted to prof C G elliott engineer in charge of drainage invest investigations I 1 actions at ions for my first serious consideration of this idea though I 1 have been unable to conceive how this might be accomplished the enormous loss of fertility consequent upon the removal of oc these elements makes it an object worthy of the scientists efforts at present there thee is no other altern active than to remove these by under A drainage the first step then is to prevent the excessive evalora evaporation alon by keeping tile the ground water from 3 to 4 feet below the surface the source of supply must be cut off and an adequate outlet provided for those these portions which have become v wet et sufficient deep drainage must be bd provided tolee all water applied percolate readily to the drains surface washing is 13 advisable tor for that alkali which is concentrated at the surface but to attempt to remove by that thai method that which wh ach is distributed through the soil to a depth of 3 or 4 feet cutti 1 oil off the feeder is the 1 I e itel tc i at M of c fc 7 even evea with the feeder cut oft off the method is unreasonable and has never succeeded to my knowledge to remove the alkali from the soil sell in sufficient quantities to allow the growth of crops we must depend upon its solubility in water and provisions for or passing water down iov n through the soil As sodium carbonate or black alkali is not solvable able in to remove it liy by underground drainage have not proved successful but as most ol of our alkali has been deposited by wa ter and the fields within our kaoe ledge have produced abundant crops crois I 1 which would have keen been with black alkali present it is not likely that there is much real black alkali present I 1 take it for granted that no observant farmer who has ever made a 1 drain ditch has failed to observe the salty taste of the water s seeping into such ditches where alkali Is present to give you an illustration a of where under drainage has proved efficient I 1 will call your attention first to the 1 farm of sommer and sommer west ot of Tre Tremon tremonton monton toa this farm is not net on higher ground round than that around it which Is nearly all affected materially above and below and ha has become almost unproductive from waterlog water log logs in ing and alkali this farm as well as tle others gave abundant crops the first few years many farms above and below have ceased to yield properly the sommer farm under the abler able management of Mr mathew baer is still keeping up its record last year it yielded an average of 95 05 bushels 1 of oats cats per acre has alkali even showed up on en section S and tile the last half of section 9 very little has water even stood on the surface and has it showed wet spots yes but not for long nearly every wet spot was tapped with a tile drain from three to four feet deep and the open spot which showed alkali in excess has been honeycombed honey combed with drains and it is improving every year from ozie one fourth to one half mile kile cf tile drain has been put in and will continue to be put in until more wet round ground shows hows up mr baer reports that thai the labor cost of 0 his draining has been very close to 50 cents per rod this Is a good approximation according to my experience in digging mr lewis getz of point lookout has drained with considerable success on his farm he says that the present high price of tile has prevented him hia from using as much of it as he would have done I 1 think he has a mile or more of 0 covered tile drains and lie he maintains more open ditch drains sir in thomas brown of corinne has several covered tile drains in operation in alkali ground which shows considerable success many farmers have been fearful of the effects of alfalfa roots on the drains tb thinking inkin that the roots would force an opening into the drains and clog them up one of mr air browns 4 inch tile drains runs through ag abood good stand of alfalfa and discharges all the water that a 4 ancil tile could discharge without pressure or excessive grade the drain has been in operation for four or five years I 1 attempted to locate it in the alfalfa field f and uncovered a portion of it but was unsuccessful in the year 1901 the bureau of so soils 1 Is U S department of agriculture and tle the utah ent sa bation station tion undertook the reclamation of a 40 aart tract of alkali ground in n the worst possible stage it was drained with parallel lines feet apart and about four feet deep it was washed several years and an made to crop it last year A par partial dal crop of grain and alfalfa was produced on most of it it was thought that the failure to get expected results result S w was a s due more to tile the poor mechanical condition of the soil than to excessive alkali it was all plowed up last year and an effort to get a sta stand rd of alfalfa will be made again this year of course this land has never grown a crop and is hardly a fair test of what we want the utah sugar company has made mad several attempts to relieve waterlog water log ged conditions and to reclaim alkali lands with open ditches they have succeeded to a marked de deree degree ree but the maintenance of an open drain where there is alternate freezing and thawing is a very expensive item besides the large amount of ground occupied by ditches the sugar com banys ditches have filled up from one to two feet during the last nine months and are consequently not as ef efficient 31 1 ai as they were many acres of alkali lands in egypt have been reclaimed during the last seven or eight years by the open ditch and levee method of getting water through the soil the complete reclamation cla occupies from two to four our years lands that were not worth anything have brought per acre after nine years of lucli treatment |