types of diamonds, and quite a number of Oriental rubies, garnets, spinels, sapphires and amethysts-"an association of minerals which"-he said in his subsequent report-"I believe of impossible occurrence in nature."

Having thus satisfied himself that Table Rock and its vicinity had been "salted" a term familiar in the lexicon of mining frauds-the geologist proceeded to make a series of outside prospects, which were carried out all over the mesa and flanking canyons, until the absolute valuelessness of the property was finally demonstrated.

at

It was undoubtedly the cleverest and most elaborate swindle of the kind ever tempted. Mr. King, in his report, said: "This was the work of no common swindler. The selection of the geological situation was astonishingly well considered, and the 'salting' itself was most cunning and artful." Indeed, no pains were spared by the organizers of the fraud to make it con

by a small army of disappointed fortunehunters.

One of the cleverest features of the whole affair was the successful deception of the engineer already mentioned, Mr. Henry Janin, who, by the adoption of certain ingenious expedients, was prevented, while on the ground, from carrying out his examination of the "diamond field" with the thoroughness he desired. Another man,

named Roberts, who had much to do with setting the fraudulent enterprise on foot, though himself honestly persuaded of its genuineness, was an old and well-known Californian, one of the earliest gold seekers, and a mining operator of long experience. Curiously enough, he, who blew the bubble, and King, who punctured it, died on the same day and at nearly the same hour, twenty-nine years later. Their death announcements, with obituary notices, will be found side by side, in parallel and adiciting columns of the New York Times of Wednesday, Christmas Day, 1901. The whole business reflected the greatest credit upon Mr. King. Those who engineered the swindle-their identity was never positively ascertained-knew his character too well to try to bribe him. An agent of theirs, however, did approach him with an offer of $1,000,000 to hold back his report on the subject for two days-a proposition which, needless to say, he indignantly rejected.

vincing, and it must have cost them a good many thousands of dollars. Evidence afterwards obtained showed that the diamonds, rubies, and other stones used had been bought in large quantities. in London and Paris during the preceding winter. The cheat all but proved an immense success. Had it remained undiscovered until the following spring, great sums would have been wasted in the purchase of the supposed gembearing field, and in fruitless prospecting

T sounds queer to say that a drainage engineer is needed down in the Southwest country of these United States where they have to drink the water from the cactus plants, but there is where he is proving the most useful.

These engineers were put on the government payroll along in 1901 when Uncle Sam decided to drain the Florida Everglades. Then Florida thought that she could do the job herself and proceeded to hire about half of the government engineers. About this time somebody decided that a whole lot of land in Arkansas would be good farming country if the water could be drained from it, so the remaining engineers were sent there. Then the irrigation farmers of Colorado discovered that while a little water is a blessing, too much is otherwise, and in their enthusiasm they had been a little lavish with their manufactured rain, so an engineer was sent to them. He made a discovery and several

more men were

sent to help him experiment. The discovery was simply this: That the great river bottoms and lowlands of the West, which had hitherto been regarded as worth less than nothing on account of the alkali in them could be reclaimed, and that by the very simple process of washing them. The farmers, or ranchmen, for any land

is a ranch West of the Colorado-Kansas line, laughed and hooted at the idea of ever farming these alkalied flats. They would admit that a man could even farm without water but for a man to try to farm any of that salt-grass countrythat was a joke. Nevertheless the engineers persuaded some men at Fort Collins, Colorado, to try it and the experiment was successful. In two weeks the land was washed clear of the deadly white chemical and now raises its crops the same as the land higher up.

The drainage engineer comes when he is called and not before. If a district sends for him he goes and gives his advice and supervision freely, but he does not go of his own free will and try to induce men to use him. He is too busy now. New Mexico and Arizona are alkalied over practically their entire area, but as there is water only in the river bottoms and artesian belts, the washing has progressed very slowly as yet. The Rio Grande Valley has thou

sands of acres of land that was farmed for hundreds of years but is now snowy white with the alkali. The Pecos Valley, New Mexico's great artesian belt, has miles and miles of alkali flats, which until recently were fit only for duck hunting. Much of the land along the Rio Grande is held by big land grants but the land on the

Pecos is owned by individuals and is therefore becoming rapidly developed. There is a drainage engineer on the ground there and he is doing much to aid in the development of this district. A brief description of his work will be of interest.

Many men who have bought land in the irrigated portions of the Southwest now wonder why their crops are dying where last year they grew nicely. In desperation they water them, but the more water they get the faster they die. In the middle of a cornfield is a spot that will not bear, yet the land all around is heavily cropped. One row of trees in an orchard may die for apparently no reason while the trees all about it are perfectly healthy. One side of an alfalfa field may be scraggly and poor while the other bears a heavy stand.

It is alkali. In the fall after the land has been allowed to become thoroughly dry, these spots will be covered with a fine white crust, which will gradually dry and distintegrate and be blown here and there by the wind. About that time the owner of the field will

A PARADISE OF GREEN TREES.

A few years ago this land was alkali flat.

seek the drainage engineer for advice, and he will get it. He will be told that alkali may be calcium sulphate, calcium chloride-occasionally-and even plain Epsom salts. It is taken from its native state far down in the earth and carried in solution by the water that passes over the deposit. the deposit. In the dry parts of this country the water is being continually drawn toward the surface of the earth by the constant evaporation of the surface water. Now when this alkaline

solution reaches the surface of the earth the water is carried off by evaporation, leaving the alkali in its raw state as a crust on the surface. As more water comes up and is carried off more of the white crust is deposited until there may be so much of it that the land will appear to be covered as with snow. Then rain comes and dissolves a certain amount of the chemical into solution again. Part of this solution is carried away, by the natural drainage facilities, to the nearest stream and so passes out of our story. That which remains sinks into the earth temporarily but

a

SIDE VIEW OF THE DITCHER AT WORK,

reach the roots of the crops. But in these bottom lands the constant water level is sometimes only a few inches from the top of the ground, which is usually a thick white crust, because of the constant deposit of alkali from below.

A flat like this is meat for the drainage engineer. Any man can buy, or at least he could do it a few months ago, this land for next to nothing. He takes out the laundryman, as we may call the drainage man, and has an estimate of cost of washing and the plans for it made. The engineer, clad in khaki and high-top boots runs levels here and there across the land and decides on the most economical plan of washing. The ditching machine is sent for and the ditch is dug and the tile laid. If the ground is very hard it is roughed up with a disk harrow so that the water will not run over the surface, but will sink in. Then the water is turned on and the laundering begins. The whole area is thoroughly flooded until the water stands on the surface. It is then left to drain. When the flow of water from the outlet of the tile indicates that the land is drained it is flooded again and again. Then it is planted to some shallow-rooted crop such as milo maize for the first year. An orchard may be set out at once but it is the better plan to wait a year. After the first crop the land may be said to be rid of alkali sufficiently for all practical purposes. This land is now worth whatever good irrigated land is worth in that community. The plan is so childishly simple, and yet there are thousands of acres lying along the river valleys of the Southwest that may yet be reclaimed.

is gradually drawn out again by the sun. Now in an irrigated country no alkali may show on the surface for many years. Indeed, the nature of the soil may be such that the water from the surface is carried away by a natural system of subsurface drainage, but in most sections the constant irrigation gradually fills the land up with moisture until the alkalied water coming up meets the surface water coming down and the whole is impregnated with the deadly chemical. The solution at first is weak, but gradually the water from below brings up so much of the alkali that at last the whole is nothing less than a strong solution of calcium sulphate. Even now it may not do any harm, because the natural drainage facilities may be such that the water flow is from above and the alkali may never

The ditching machine used in the Southwest is a monstrous affair weighing over twenty tons. It is an immense

traction engine carrying behind an arm, from which is suspended a wheel. Attached to this wheel are buckets. As the wheel rotates, each bucket takes a little earth from the ditch, and when the bucket arrives at its highest point the contents are deposited on a belt conveyor and carried to one side. Directly behind the wheel and slightly under it is the shoe in which the tilelayer stands at his work. The machine will dig a ditch eight feet deep at the rate of a thousand feet an hour if everything runs smoothly. On account of the nature of the ground in which it generally works the machine seldom makes over three thousand feet a day. The tile is laid as the machine progresses to prevent the delay that would be occasioned by the continual cave-ins in the wet ground. One or more shovelers follow closely behind the machine and keep the tile well covered so that if the sides of the ditch do cave in the tile will not be displaced. In ground where the constant water level is very close to the surface the tile layer will sometimes be forced to leave the shoe because of the rapid rise of water in it. Operations must then be suspended until the surplus water is carried off by the tile already laid. The total cost per foot of laying tile with this machine is from eighteen to twenty-five cents. The cost of operating the machine is from four to ten cents per linear foot. The total cost of ditching a field amounts to from six to ten dollars an acre as a rule, although on some work it will run as high as thirty and forty dollars per acre.

A few years ago a man bought a section of salt-grass land on the Pecos River. He ditched and tiled it by hand and bored a shallow artesian well. People called him foolish to try to do anything with that land but he spent one summer washing it and today has the most beautiful place in the valley. The land next adjoining his is a barren alkali flat while his farm is a paradise of green trees and alfalfa fields.

Another man, a land speculator, bought eighty acres of creek bottom, heavily alkalied and with the water level but six inches from the surface. It required 8,500 feet of six and eight inch tile to drain it and the ditching company charged him twenty-five cents a foot for