Ogden Daily Standard | 1919-04-10 | Page 3 | Composition of Water of Ogden and Weber Rivers Ideal for Irrigation Purposes

f COMPOSITION OF WATER OF ! OGDEN AND WEBER RIVERS IDEAL I " FOR IRRI GATION PURPOSES Di i El Greay.es, bacteriologist of I Utah Agricultural eolege, after a test I of the water of Ogden and Weber river.--, has made the following report: - "Careful analysis has shown that the waters of the Weber and Ogden rivers ontain no injurious substance, but that, on the other hand-, they contain salts actually beneficial to plant life. "Water is applied to the soil to promote and not retard plant growth: yet the actual result in man cases is the latter and not the former. This may be due lo excessive use of water or to the use of water which contains Injurious constituents Hence, the farmer wants to know both the quality qual-ity and composition of the irrigation water which he is using. Moreover. , the quantity used will be governed, S among other things, by its composition. composi-tion. The Ogden and Weber rivers nro comparatively free from objec tlonal constituents. "Both streams are low in salts and nearly of the same composition What is more Important, over CO per cent of the salts are common limestone dissolved In water containing carbon dioxid, which of course can do no harm to the plants or soil, but may actually be a benefit. "The quantity of common salt present pres-ent in the Otcden mer varies from traces fib 139.6 parts per million, being be-ing lowest in June and highest in September. The total salts vary from 128 parts in May to 40S in Septcm ber. "The seasonal variation in the Weber We-ber river water is not quite so varied, being 174.0 parts per million in May and 293.0 parts per million in Sep teraber. It is quite evident that I - neither stream is carrying sufficient salts in solution to be injurious to f agricultural soils "How about the beneficial ronsii' uents of the water.' Dees it contain anything in addition to the limestone ' which will benefit the solP The ! 1 three constituents which are taken from the soil in large quantities and ! , often become deficient are potassium, I phosphorus, and nitrogen, and the quantity of eaeh of these constituents in one acre-foot of these waters is as follows Weber river; Phosphorus. 0.44; ni- trogen, 2 61; potassium. 13.4. Ogden river Phosphorus, traces; 'nitrogen, traces; potassium. 10.9. Both streams actually furnish an j appreciable quantity of potassium to I the soil. So they may be considered as ideal waters for irrigation pur-1 i poses. I oo '