Show FOR irrigation the utah agricultural experiment station has just completed a number of very important experiments in a series which it Is running jn n alkali the purpose of these experiments peri ments was to secure information informs jn in the extent to which alkali waters night successfully success tully be used for irrigation the work was conducted by jr F S harris director and agronomist of the experiment station and mr air N I 1 butt assistant agronomist dr harris says that much more and needs irrigation than can be aup supplied plied from available sources tor por this reason it Is important to e able to utilize all the water that s possible even that which is not en rely pure this makes it 0 0 know just what are the danger limits of alkali in irrigation water it if the tilling of land requires jon with water which will render it iiii unproductive productive it is highly desirable LO io prevent the erection of expensive irrigation structures the experiments were begun in 1915 1915 and continued for three years ril en order to make the work very ex and to control as many 0 of he die influencing factors as possible le he work was conducted in the laboratories and greenhouses of the station the crops were planted in jars ars and tumblers and irrigated with water containing the he most alkali salts in various concentrations cent rations and mixtures in a num jer of cases case s the same soils were used i or all three years to determine not only the effect during the one year car nit jut the cumulative effect over a period of years at harvest time each year various data were taken to determine the effect of the treatment such auch as number of leaves per plant bength of leaves number and length of culms calms number of heads and pike lets and dry weight of crop the iho extent of the injury was determined by comparing with plants grown under the same conditions except that pure water was used for lUi gation tests were also made to determine the concentrations which kill the plants after definite periods of time also the concentta ton con of each salt which would kill he plant with one application the bulletin which has just been by the station reporting report lne this work entitled the use of alkali water tor for irrigation contains nany many interesting points point s including a summary of the work of numerous other investigators of this problem the point at which injury was noted d by the authors varied from parts per million with sodium carbonate to about parts per million of sodium sulfate sul falc in summarizing the work the authors state that on land irrigated with alkali water for only one year or A with ith but a single irrigation much stronger concentrations cent rations than mentioned above can be endured but for regular lion water any ally concentration above bout about parts per million of sodium carbonate 1000 parts per million of sodium chloride parts per million of sodium sulfate and parts per million of the mixed salts may be considered as dangerous tills this work in connection with previous 1 determinations of the composition of tho the irrigation waters of utah recently published by the station should he be of much practical value to the agricultural interests of the hie state |