Excerpt from Soil Survey Around Imperial, Cal Farming in the desert to ordinary crops, fruit or alfalfa will be impossible on much of the land, and risky on all unless Special pre cautions are taken to prevent the rise of the alkali. Of the level lands only 1-7 per cent have less than per cent alkali, while 32 per cent have from to per cent. This 49 per cent of the area can be farmed to nearlv allorops as long as the accumulation of the alkali at the surface is prevented. The remainder of the land, or 51 per cent, will have to be farmed to alkali-resistant crops. Date palms, sorghum, sugar beets, and barley will likely be most successful. Even where farmed to these resistant crops the greatest precaution should be taken to prevent an accumulation of alkali at or near the surface. The claims for the fertility of this country are based upon the experience gained from irrigation along the Colorado River below Yuma. An examination of the country reveals the fact that the con ditions below Yuma are very different from those in the Imperial area, and the agriculture of the two areas is not comparable. The soils of the bottom lands below Yuma are lighter in texture, more pervious to water. Contain less alkali, and are, many of them, Well adapted to alfalfa.' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.