You cannot
remove alkali by flooding unless two conditions can be assured: first,
that the water itself is free from alkali before application to the
land; second, that you underdrain the land at a depth of from three to
four feet with tile, so that the fresh water on the surface can flow
through the soil into the drains, carrying away from the land the
alkali, which it dissolves in its course. To flood land even with fresh
water without making arrangements for carrying off the alkali water
below, is to increase the alkali on the surface as the water evaporates,
and such treatment does land injury rather than benefit. We cannot give
you any estimate as to the cost of washing out. It depends altogether
upon local conditions: whether you use hand work or machinery for the
ditching, and what your water will cost.
Alkali, Gypsum and Shade Trees.
Kindly advise how to apply gypsum, and how much, to heavy, sticky soil,
the worst sort of adobe and heavily saturated with alkali. We want to
plant shade trees. Eucalyptus and peppers succeed fairly well after once
started. Gypsum seems to help, but I don't know how much to use.
The amount of gypsum required to neutralize black alkali depends upon
how much black alkali there is to be neutralized, and no definite
amount, therefore, can be prescribed beforehand as sufficient without a
determination of the amount of alkali.
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