Show BEAR RIVER SOILS comprehensive COMP TREATISE AND DIAGRAMS ISSUED BY BU REAU or by charles A J nixson and A ti T Str ihorn 0 ah t P i continued from last issue at 1 t A resistance or OF I 1 TO I 1 some data were obtained concerning the amount of enari that crops in the valley would As the alkali conditions r hange change more or less during the giorl growing season due to surface evaporation irrigation etc the data cannot he bp regarded as a absolute solute but the je inay be of f value wung young wheat was fanada from 0 50 to per ae cent ailt of salt in the surface foot and oats were growing not quite to so far araXY eboth crops however would apparently mature alture satisfactorily during the spring wliam vevea sirgae i beets were young tests were madeam the root crowns of beets that beemer ito to be growing in their limit vt ct rali tand and the amount of soluble salt fall in the first toot foot was per vent Vo examination was made of the th sec euid foot late in the surn summer mer how law lever fever the same field was visited aad were made in the same alsabti spot and it was found that beets wem gnawing well and would could mature in son carr carrying ving from per cent lo 10 per percent 1 cent in the surface food toot with per cent to osa 08 1 per cent in theve the leeond cond foot these were isolated beets growing ro 7 in alkali spots that had bad 2 gilted out most of those planted As tm the surface foot of soil carried more salt in late summer than in spring tjien theirld eld was first examined and as the beets mentioned were well able to ao mature it would seem that yer per cent of alkali in the surface foot was not more than beets could endure examinations made at the same time jn aln the best part ol of t the he field where a elop chop of 2 20 0 tons per acre acre might be showed per cent in the first saat and 03 3 in the second root the fact that the sugar beets were found to grow in such a high percentage of alkali seems at first sight sonie somewhat what strange but the amount of alhadi in which the crop W U found growing at any one time tells tell very little of the life history of the because sugar beets were found growing in from 3 to per cent of all alha li if in the surface toot foot of soil in summer does not argue that the same sugar beets would have been able to resist such quantities in their younger stage and in tact fact they did not do so in the early part of the season when the beets were 4 or 5 inches high it was found that per cent soluble salts in the first foot was about the maximum content that the beets could stand other plants were examined that were dying but in no case was it found that any of these were growing in less than per cent As this was early in the season and the ground was yet quite moist owing to the tha late spring rains the alkali was not yet so much concentrated cent rated at the surface as it was later in the Fi season cason even in the earlier tests however there was a slight concentration of alkali at the surface below which the beet roots were growing so that the roots themselves were fi ay iy growing in 11 a little less than per cent orl of alkali kall A As they grew they naturally increased la in resistance and so were able to withstand the gradually increasing amount ot of surface alkali in the latter part of the season there was a heavy incrustation of alkali on the surface of the soil which probably did not exert a proportionally increased cx eased deleterious effect on ion the growth of the beets but the active absorbing portions of the roots were below it the concentration of the leeond demild foot however shows that even anthe athe young plants were growing in the presence ol of considerable alkali An interesting case of alfalfa alf alfi growing nn alkali soil was found 33 31 T 10 ANT s R 3 W A heavy well matured crop was growing in soil containing the following percentages isalt baom rom the first to the sixth foot respectively respect valy and an average of per cent ant and chere was standing water at 4 feel it may be that the roots of the alfalfa had accommodated themselves to the existing conditions and were to the first three or oc four feet of soil though in view of the deep booked chay character acter of the I 1 I 1 crop itis it is hardly that such wis was ae case tte tite water table was probably temporarily bi high gli owing to recent irrigation this nis case demonstrates strates what can be done with alkali land it if properly irrigated and the subsoil water not allowed to carry salt to the surface A crop will germinate in but a small proportion yf the amount of alkali which it will when once well started hence indre pare care must be exercised in getting a good stand than is necessary to carry a crop to maturity an apple and peach orchard was found dying in section 1 T 9 N R 3 W where the salt content in per from the first to the sixth foot respectively was as follows and osa an average of 0 H per cent standing wai water ter was here at 4 teet t below the surface and this is not a good test as ro lo the effect of alkali alone as with the water table so near the surface it also would be likely y to interfere with the proper development of ota I 1 tire tile trees itis it is quite probable that it ir the water table had been 2 or 3 leei feet lower tile trees would have been able to stand sta nd the amount of alkali found 1 owing to the recession of great salt lake large areas ot lake bottom land have treen formed in the southern and southwestern parts of the survey the water is usually within 2 or 2 3 teet feet ol of the surface and the soil Is excessively salty containing more than 3 per cent in the first foot with increasing amounts lounts an at greater depths however large tracts ot of this land support a heavy propof crop of sedge wherever bear river overflows it copiously during the late winter and spring tests iti heavy growths or this sedge showed from 3 2 to 5 per cent of alkali in the file birst foot with increasing salt content in the sub subsoil sofi large quantities or of tills this plant arechar vested for winter feed and awline not a choice hay it Is fed to tattle until the spring grasses are grown in small quantities on the same land which makes it valuable for summer grazing the following parities varl vari ties which were determined by professor spillman promise to be of considerable value for such land distle Distich lills spi picara cata Poly beard grass ma mar 1 itimus sedge and nellia alro ldes slender meadow grass the last named lamed grass should be cultivated in reference preference to the coarse sedge as it is s much more succulent for feeding though hough the yields are not so large to be continued |