about four cents a pound) per acre of ground to the depth of one foot, was found to be present.
It would clearly be folly to wash out such quantities of fertilizing material unnecessarily; and this consideration emphasizes the importance of the less radical means of reclamation already referred to, viz., deep and thorough tillage to minimize evaporation, and in the case of "black" alkali the use of gypsum. In California the opening of numerous gypsum mines has already followed the latter recommendation.
When once the high productive value of alkali lands is generally realized, enormous areas will be added to the producing lands, not only in the arid region of the United States but in the Old World as well. The Russian investigators in central Asia are rapidly coming to this conclusion, and notably Von Middendorff reports that the inhabitants of Ferghana say that "the salt is the life of their soil" provided there is not too much of it; and that they actually sometimes carry the alkali efflorescences to the poor spots. In India, on the Ganges and Jumna, the typically rich lands of that anciently civilized region have had alkali salts made to rise to the surface in consequence of the establishment of high-lying irrigation canals by the English. Similar reports of high productiveness come from the alkali lands of the border and oases of the Libyan and Sahara Deserts, and from the pampas of Argentina.
But it must not be forgotten that the reclamation of these fertile lands requires the command of some pecuniary resources; and that the farmer or settler who depends on an annual crop for his subsistence should not undertake their cultivation at first. As in the case of mines, the wealth that lies within them is not yielded to mere scratching or prospecting, but requires the use of some capital and trained intelligence to become available.
