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OR really black magic, take some of the oil or water prophesies of the geologists. A striking instance is the history of the big artesian well at Edgemont, South Dakota, with its riverlike flow of half a million gallons of water a day. Edgemont was a dry place so far as water was concerned. The Burlington Railroad had a station there and it wanted a good water supply badly. There was an official of the road who knew that a geologist named Darton had camped and tramped about the Bad Lands country of South Dakota and was reputed a sharp on the underground. water basin of the State. The artesian wells of South Dakota range from a few hundred to upwards of two thousand feet in depth, but there were no wells any where near Edgemont, none within very many miles. It was certainly buying a pig in a poke, geologist or no geologist, to drill a well at Edgemont. But the company needed the water and being a railroad company and able to assess its patrons for the cost of the well, it was willing to drill to almost any depth if it could be assured of getting water in good quantity and of good quality. So the company wrote to N. H. Darton of the Geological Survey and offered to meet any reasonable expense if

he would come to Edgemont, make a study of the surrounding country and advise them what to do. Instead, the geologist answered the company, after a few days' consideration of his geologic. data, that if they would drill three thousand

feet they would get a fine flow of fine water. Darton had been at Edgemont and he knew how the great artesian stratum-the Dakota sandstone formationmust lie, with reference to the surface at that point, and three thousand feet was his guess to water.

Well, there is generally known to be a water basin under South Dakota and most anybody could guess three thousand feet; if water was struck at any point after going one thousand or fifteen hundred or two thousand feet, why, the guesser could say with swelling pride: "I told them to drill that well, and see what they got!" But Darton said three thousand feet. He didn't say fifteen hundred or more; he said three thousand.

The drilling began. Night and day, drove the relentless diamond point through the earth and rock. Formation after formation, stratum after stratum, as shown by the drill core, was pierced-sixteen hundred feet; two thousand feet dry as a rat's nest. "Nonsense! rot!" said many of the Burlington people. "Quit such monkey

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business; half a mile down toward China and nothing damper than at the surfaceexcepting on the enthusiasm of the drillers. How about it?" they wrote the geologist. "The prospect hole doesn't look good."

"Keep drilling" was the reply, in effect. "I. said three thousand feet. Now that you are nearing the twenty-eight hundred feet level, I may caution you that you will strike some water at about 2,920 feet in the red sandy limestone of the Carboniferous formation; but keep on through; that isn't the main flow. Drill three thousand feet."

At 2,918 feet a considerable artesian flow was struck and a loud hurrah might have been heard around Edgemont. Darton received a congratulatory telegram on the accuracy of his first guess.

Down, down, still down drove the drill-2,950 feet; 2,975 feet, but no more water. Still the drilling continued.

"At three thousand feet," Mr. Darton had said, "you will be well into the Dakota sandstone stratum, and that means water at Edgemont." And at 2,980 feet came a flood such as Edgemont had never dreamt of.

A fairly good guess? Less than one per cent of error!

This, however, is not quite all of the story of Edgemont. Mr. Darton was warmly congratulated on behalf of the Railroad, by the official who had discovered him. Being in Uncle Sam's employ he couldn't of course accept the handsome honorarium tendered him by the company; but fast following on the heels of the tidings of victory came a message over the wires shrieking dismally as it conveyed the dire intelligence that the water had proved bad. After three thousand feet into the breast of Mother Earth and tapping nature's fountain, the water

be used. "Is there anything to be done, Mr. Geologist, or shall we name the well 'Darton's Folly'?"

"Don't become excited" wrote the scientist. "Your first flow of water, struck in the red beds at 2,918 feet, undoubtedly contains calcareous matter and it has followed the pipe down and impregnated the main flow. The water from the Dakota stratum is good. Drop down a casing inside your first case and you will cut off the limewater." Correct again!

The Edgemont well has the greatest flow of any of the very deep artesian wells in the United States. Wasn't it "luck," though, getting water in this

MINUTE FLY, smaller than the common house fly, was the cause of a special session of the California legislature, which was called some little time ago to amend a law establishing strict quarantine against a pest that threatens the Pacific Coast fruit industry. The entire session lasted less than half an hour, the measure passing the House in seven minutes and the Senate in five minutes by unanimous vote; but the enforcing of the law against the introduction of the Mediterranean fruit fly will mean unremitting watchfulness on the part of United States quarantine officers for an indefinite number years to come. This tiny pest is at home in the lands about the Mediterranean Sea, where it inflicts considerable damage, but its deadliest work is done in the new lands to which it is brought.

In Australia and South Africa it is claimed that the fruit industry has been ruined by the Mediterranean fly and it is rampant in Hawaii, from which point it threatens to invade the Pacific Coast.

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Once introduced, it seems almost impossible to exterminate the fruit fly, hence it is necessary to guard most rigidly all points of entry, inspecting all fruit shipments and nursery stock and even making search of personal baggage of tourists.

So prolific is this pest that a single tropical fruit, brought home by a tourist as a tid-bit for his friends, might contain a sufficient number of the tiny maggots to destroy our fruit industry, or cost us millions of dollars to combat it. "Its terrors are better appreciated as we learn that it fattens on a score of our most prized and valued fruits; all our citrus fruits, stone fruits, apple and its near relatives, and some of our most valued vegetables; even beans. Our fruit crop, not including beans, netted us one hundred and twenty-five million dollars last year. Imagine this sacrificed to the greed of a small fly and the gravity of the situation is alarmingly evident. We simply must keep this scourge from our shores." In these words Professor A. J. Cook, California State Horticultural Commissioner, pays his respects to Ceratitis

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Capitata, the name by which

scientists know the lively little insect.

As a result of his energetic work and the co-operation of a progressive legislature and governor, the desired bills were passed and the sum of ten thousand dollars was appropriated to combat the pest in the Hawaiian Islands. This, added to the fund of $8,750, will be used in the groves of Hawaii to check the increase of the fruit fly as far as possible. The latter sum was raised by progressive planters on the islands, more as a contribution to the general welfare than as a direct benefit to their own interests.

The situation there is peculiar: the Hawaiian fruits of any commercial value are the banana and pineapple, and these have so far been immune from the pest and may be freely imported. The fruits which harbor the maggots, such as the mangoes, guavas and other tropical products, are not exported to any great extent, do not represent any commercial interest in the islands and, therefore, the Hawaiian fruit growers would have been justified in remaining indifferent to the presence of the fly. They deserve credit for raising this fund to combat a pest which threatens the mainland, and it was in recognition of this that California appropriated ten thousand dollars for the work over there.

Mr. E. K. Carnes was sent as special agent to the islands to study the life history and habits of the Mediterranean fruit-fly and to do experimental work that would assist both in keeping out the undesirable insect and eradicating it in case it should by some chance elude the quarantine. He describes the "female of the species" for the benefit of the fruit grower, so that it

may be readily recognized wherever it may chance to come.

"The fly is slightly smaller than a house fly, and is strikingly beautiful; is of the same general shape, except that the abdomen ends in a sharp point. The general color is yellowish, with beautiful black and white markings on the raised,

rounded thorax. At first glance, the most characteristic feature that would probably be noticed by the average grower, and which would quickly distinguish this species from the common house fly, is the peculiarly banded wings, which are partly transparent, and each one is each one is marked with four irregular yellowish brown blotches, one at the base and the other three on the broad part. The abdomen is dull yellow, with two silvery or light purplish bands crossing it. The whole body is more or less hairy, and the adult carries its wings in a peculiar drooping manner. The eyes are dark purplish, and the legs are dull yellow."

This pretty little creature is quite as deadly as she is attractive when she flits about from fruit to fruit making tiny incisions, in which she deposits her eggs. These develop into white, pointed maggots almost half an inch long and they have the effect of softening the pulp and causing the fruit to ripen and drop before its time. Usually it bursts and the maggots are released. As they are quite active at this stage, they spring about from place to place and seek an opening in the soil, which they enter. Within a short time they change into the pupa and finally emerge as adult flies. The whole life cycle from egg to parent fly is about twenty-eight days in Hawaii.

Mr. Carnes states that from the first three mangoes which he bought from a fruit market in Honolulu, he took twelve, seventeen and eight maggots, respectively, and that wherever ripe or decaying fruit was found, the pest was in evidence.

In connection with Mr. Carnes' work he installed an experimental station in small hot-house where he placed infested fruit in glass jars in order to study the development and life habits of the Ceratitis Capitata. The experimental jars were covered with gauze and had a layer of sand or soil on the bottom, so that as the flies passed from stage to stage it was possible to observe the effect of the insecticides for their destruction.

A careful inspection of the orchards in various parts of the islands was undertaken, involving many miles of travel aside from the main roads and an investigation of the wild fruits which harbor the pest.

The latter feature seems to present an almost hopeless problem as far as the eradication of the fly in the islands is concerned. For instance, the island of Oahu contains many thousands of acres of what is practically jungle, a dense growth of wild guava and other fruit-bearing shrubs, which produce ripe fruits in abundance all the year round. The decaying specimens under the bushes were alive with maggots, and when one considers that this island alone contains six hundred square miles, the greater part of which is mountainous land, it will be seen that it is a gigantic task to fight the pest under such conditions.

Ranking next to the wild guavas, the most hospitable of the "host fruits" are those grown about the houses of the natives and residents of the islands.

Practically every house or native hut has a clump of fruit trees and these often grow to enormous size, making fumiga