Show reclaiming SALINE oil oll ALKALINE AI kalne walne 1 M X 1 1 LAND lanb i ads S ilk 11 SPA SPANISH fork foric CITY january 1873 1872 1 1 to the president and members of the spanish fork gardeners club gentlemen I 1 deem it my duty to give you my views on reclaiming waste land ov of land strongly impregnated with salt or other minerals for it is a subject of vast importance to us as aa a people what we in this ibis neighborhood are most moat acquainted with are the black salt and eal eratus to get rid of them I 1 scrape serape the high places into the lowest parts of my field until I 1 think I 1 have got it so BO that I 1 can run the water over every foot of it my main irrigation ditch runs due north my land has a gradual fall to the west of about one foot in sixty I 1 make ditches thirty feet fiet apart running west to carry oft ott the impregnated water into the waste i aste water ditches on the west side of the field I 1 then throw up a levy every sixty feet west forming plots thirty feet by sixty tho sides of the ditches that run west also form levees I 1 turn on the water and run it into the first plot east until the whole surface of the plot is under water then I 1 let it off into the second ditch running west I 1 use the first ditch running west to carry fresh water into every plot on tho the first tier until I 1 have flooded all the plots ou on that tier I 1 then use the second ditch for fresh water for the second tier of plots and flood all of them running the impregnated water into the third ditch northward and so on until I 1 have gono gone over the whole field when the ground is dry enough to plow I 1 turn over the soil about six inches deep plowing down the levees first into the place from whence I 1 got the dirt to make them and let it re main for a short time harrowed to see if the tho sal sai eratus makes its appear ance anee if it shows very little I 1 sow oats for the first crop putting a little over two buhela bu hela to the acre and harrow it down smooth raised three crops in succession of oats then a crop of wheat then other crops it if I 1 thina thin t there is any auy danger of the mineral injuring the tender blades as they come up t through the ground I 1 spread a thin obin coating of chaff or short straw immediately after harrowing in the sped and find it very bem bene famal aadal as iks a mulch in keeping the surface damp and protecting the young plants until the crop shades the ground from the rays of tho the sun bun you are well aware that thousands of acres of our best land ir ii the north and west fields have been rendered comparatively ively useless through carelessness and lack of judgment in using the water in some by being flooded too much the water washing away the soil and aud cutting it into gu gullier illee and in bomb some by the water ditches not being properly located causing but a partial watering merely washing the mineral off one tart i art of the nie land and depositing iton it on another but I 1 have no hesitation in saying that by proper management of the water and understanding where to locate tho the ditches and leveer it can all be made very productive 1 I bought the improvements on a farm of forty acres for one hundred dollars the land being supposed to be useless I 1 can now raise on the same land good crops of all kinds my wheat crop in 1 1871 averaged forty five bus bubbels bushels belis heiti to the acre barley and oata oats not so BO mush being badly damaged bv grasshoppers yours ac SAMUEL paterson T |