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Show AMetIETOI?E Reclaiming Alkali Land. In tho United States and Canada, as well as In many othor countries of tho world, thcro are great- stretches of land thnt nro unfcrtllo duo to u too great proportion of salt or nlkMI In them. Usually these tracts of land nro qulto low, and somo of them hnvo boon formerly bods of lakes and ponds. Thcro are other tracts of land that havo developed alkali spots front, having hav-ing being too long undor n systim of Irrigation that pormltted tho sal: and alkali to rlso In tho soil as a result of capillary attraction. It Is thercf re of Interest to American farmors to Know what Is being done In tho matter of tho reclamation of such lands In foreign for-eign countries. Egypt Is tho country that Is nt present pres-ent attracting tho most attention In this regard. Here some of tho proloms aro being worked ouL This ha3 not boon nn easy matter. Quite a number of yenrs ago, a French company bought 10,000 acres of this land, nnd sunk ILC00.000 In an attempt to reclaim re-claim it, but wero unsuccessful. Yet tho land they handled was and Is as easily reclaimed as any of tho other land that has boen reclaimed and mado profitable. Thoy showed how not to do It, and otlicr companies profited by their mistakes. Tho causes of their failure wero first, tbo ditches were not close enough together to permit of rapid washing of the soil. Tbo ditches wero about 1,000 feet apart when they Bhould have beon not more than 160." Second, tho ditches should have followed tho Blopo of the land. They were actually laid out on a tectangular plan regardless of slopo. Third, reclamation was attempted on too large a scale, and lacked thoroughness. thorough-ness. Fourth, the land was put into Btich crops as cotton bofore It was sweetened freed from Its alkali and salt. This land Is now in process of being reclaimed under correct methods. I On tho other hand the success in rtr-claiming rtr-claiming land In Egypt has been most I gratifying and profitable. An English company obtained a grant of 25,000 ncres of this worthless alkali land and Invested $12. Gp per acre in Its reclamation. reclama-tion. Tho land now brings an annual rental of about $25 per aero and has a value of over $200 per acre, or a total of ovor $2,500,000. Tho English company declared dividends of 45 per cent last year. Tho soil boforo drainage was described as "heavy, dense, sticky, black clay, apparently very Impervious to water and difficult to underdraln. In fact tho wholo ob-pect ob-pect of the land Is one of utter hopelessness, hope-lessness, and nono but tho most Ban-guluo Ban-guluo of agricultural engineers would havo undertaken Its reclamation." I That land Is now bright with grow- ing crops and productive of an immense im-mense revenue. The most effective method of ridding rid-ding the land of its surplus salt and alkali is found to be flooding, with Ulo drains. The drains aro placed 30 Inches deep and 35 foot apart, and tho cost is $J0 per acre. This Is tho lat- I est and best method, but Is not tho method by which most of the Egyptian I lands have been so far reclaimed. That method has been to use open ditchos and flood tho land for months at a tlmo till tho salts have soaked out. Tho water is then drained off. In some cases it has taken two years to sufficiently drain iho soil of its salts to mako tho land productive. American farmors will of course pre fer tho tile drains to tho open ditches, as open ditches are a nuisance and keep much of the land out of cultivation. culti-vation. Bosldes, they havo to be larger and cost more to dig. A tile drain does not havo to bo cleaned out frequently, as Is the case with open ditches. An experiment of this kind Is now being carried on near Salt Lake City, Utah, whero the dltchflv aro pjacod 160 feet apart. |
