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Show Utah Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters 98 In some alkali areas, as at Sad Sha'ur there is a water,...table Hami the surface, but in many, as at Shabonkareh, most of or 12 10 within water-table dieh, Gorgon, and others there is no feet of the surface. anent. near an ex At Hamidieh in the fall of 1941 and 1942 there was soil-a of a brown "puffed saline" of spots development such as was condition surface brown-stained loose, fluffy, ashy, described by Haedden in Colorado as being associated with salt was pre excessive nitrate accumulation, yet in this case the accumulation. dominantly sodium chlorid with no noticeable nitrate On the other hand, a sample of plain white salt crust from below Naishabur, which I examined, was so rich in ntirate that when I boiled it in acid to determine its organic content it gave off great This soil was hopelessly saline clouds of tensive orange-red N02 gas. in any case. When wheat was planted on the brown saline soil of Ham idieh it made a fairly good early growth during the mild drizzly weather of winter, but with the onset of hot dry weather in the about three- fold. In spring it nearly died and the yield was only a distinct white there was where Sha'ur Sad the area, the case of alkali crust and a water-table 'at about 3 feet or less, neither sugar withstand the salt. At Shabonkareh, cane, 'cotton, nor wheat could the salt. on sandy soil, both cotton and wheat were destroyed by The native method of handling these saline areas-where considered to be worth reclaiming because the water but by the cannot be used elsewhere-is not by the use of drains much older system of soaking the salt out from t-he top with water the and letting the water run off. This may be accomplished by where rice is growth of rice or by simple soaking of the bare land in the not feasible. I met a very interesting Persian gentleman landlord who Teheran-a of southeast lived in district of Khar his villages and managed his own land-s-who had extended his below the holdings for miles into what was formerly an: alkali flat dikes rest of the settlement of Khar by this means. Each year he is there winter when the and some of this land, plows it, during low land he floods it. letting the for this available water of plenty he water off in surface drains at intervals. The .Iollowinq fall has a good crop. He has followed this and wheat to it plants and I can say that his practice for about seventeen years now the adjacent land. which he has not yet crops look good though reclaimed. surely looks quite bad. they are , • , While I. was in Iran some small experiments were started to reclaim some of the salted areas at Hamidieh, and I think others Because there was no water are being started at Sahbonkareh. at these places. because tile was difficult to get table within range and open drains would interfere with 'working and irrigating the . |
