Show Dr Harris Completes Important Alkali AlkaH Work ork Dr F F. F S. S Harris Director and Agronomist of the Utah Agricultural Experiment Station one of the r fore fore foremost re most authorities on alkali and related I work wok In the country today has Just just made another valuable contribution to t this ls subject He Ile has assisted in his recent investigations by Mr 11 D D. D W W. Pittman assistant agronomist The work just completed was conducted conducted conducted con con- ducted to determine the relative re resistance resistance resistance re- re of various crops to a alkali kali The general conclusions arrived arrived at by Dr Harris and Mr 11 Pittman ar are that for tor alkali land the cereals are the best of the crops crop investigated and the grasses the poorest Of the forage crops vetches cowpeas alfalfa alfalfa al alfalfa al- al falfa and sweet clover are superior to the grasses Timothy and Alsike I clover which are recognized as good crops for wet land are shown to bo be relatively resistant non and probably should not be included among the forage crops for alkali land that Is very wet Much l of the former work along this line has been done under field conditions but there are tso so so many influencing factors entering into such experiments that Dr Harris decided decided decided de de- to conduct his work in Inthe the the laboratory laboratory lab lab- orator oratory where most of or these factors could be controlled and the tests made much more extensive than is possible under field conditions The experiments were begun and extended over a period of two years Soils were prepared containing sodium sodium sodium sod sod- ium chloride sodium carbonate and sodium sulfate three of the most common alkali salts in various con con- The soil was placed in glass tumblers in each of which ten seeds were planted A total of seventy seventy seventy sev sev- enty crops were tested including the carious varieties of practically every field crop grown in the State The plants were allowed to grow for a definite period after which they were carefully harvested measured dried and weighed other interesting and valuable data being recorded during the period of growth The results of this work in detail have been published by the Station in bulletin form and will be ready for free distribution by mail to the people people peo peo- people of the State within the next few days according to Director Harris |