The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-08
FARMING A ACRES or SALT.
ON A MARVELLOUS CRYSTAL PLAIN,
WHERE 1fO is A COMMON Tenn
PERATURE.

Where the Overfowing Colorado
River Once Formed salton Sea the
subsidins Waters Have Left an
Apparently Inexhaustible supply
of sah-The Commodity Is Piowed
Up, uoed and Gathered Into Giist-
ening Pyramids to BE Dried,
Cleaned and shipped.
BY Mrs. A. S. c. Forbes.
One of the most curious pieces of real
estate In existence is now the subject
of suit brought by the government
to recover the property. 1t Is a salt
farm--one thousand acres of solid salt
which is blowed and hoed and hilled
up like so much earth. 1t lies in a de-
preston, 264 feet below the level of the
sea, in the midst of the great Colorado
Desert, just north Of the Mexican line
in the state OF California, and the town
which has grown up on tbs border takes
its name, Salton, from the crystal de-
post.
For many years salt has been taken
from this district, but on a small scale.
In 1892 temporary stoppage was put
to the local industry by the overflow
of the Colorado river, forming what
was known as the Salton Sea- In time
the water receded, evaporation follow
ed, and there was left a residuum OF
almost pure crystal salt, a vista UNI
imaginable and almost UNDESIRABLE bril-
lance and beauty. From q distance
the effect was that OF sheet of the
purest snow, glittering in the sunlight;
but when the first explorers ventured
upon the newly formed crust they were
unable to endure for long the fierce
refraction of the light, and fed blind
ly with aching eyebails from that IN
sufferable radiance. Equipped with
colored glasses. they returned, and
soon a Company was working the
richest salt crystal field in existence.
All that was necessary was to plow
out the salt and grind 1t up. A salt
pillow was devised and built 1t has
four wheels and a heavy and powerful
steel beak, or breaker, and the motive
power is steam. Then grinding mill
and drying plant was put up, dummy
lire run up to connect with the South
ern Pacific Railroad, and the work or
taking out Ave and a half tons daily
at from S6 to S35 a ton began. The great
difficulty, however, was to get labor.
Probably nowhere else on the earth's
surface do men work under such ter
rife conditions of temperature as at
the Salton salt farm. The normal heat
of the Colorado Desert, which Is sueh
that few white men can live in that
region, is enormously increased by the
refracted and reflected rays OF the sun.
For weeks at a time the temperature OF
the field reaches lao degrees every DAY.
white man can work. The salt plowing
is done by Japanese and Indians, main
" the latter, who seem to endure the
rigors of the climate without evil ef-
fects. To watch the steady, stole per-
fcrmarlce of the red-skinned totler as
he hoes, shovels and Scrapes the field,
or operates the engine that propels the
plow, is to appreciate the qualities OF
the Indian as a worker under the most
trying conditions. Some of the Indian
la borers even work without glasses.
but all the Japs protect their eyes from
the bAnefuf glare with the darkest OF
spectacles, and even so they are often
laid off with optic Inflammation. In ad-
dition to the other disconforts of the
salt fields the flying particles generate
a peculiarly irritating and persistent
thirst. The workers drink great quaint
ties of water. and this serves as a safe
guard against sunstroke, as Ii keeps
them perspiring freely.
The deposit of salt varies in thick
ness from one to eight inches. 1t forms
in a crust, and the plow breaks this
salt covering by throwing a broad but
shallow furrow of salt Jumps up In
parallel ridges on either side of the
machine. Here and there underlying,
the crystal plain are springs of water.
When the crust is broken the springs
seep forth their dirty, brackish water;
and the Indian lads follow the pillow
with hoe in hand, knocking to and fro
the clumps of salt and mud in this
water, until the earth is dissolved, and
then the crystal salt Is stacked in con-
ical pyramids to await transportation
to the mill
The salt crystals do not dissolve dur
ing the washing. doubtless on account
of the quantity of saline already in the
water. No sooner has the plow gone
over the field than the crust begins to
form again: therefore IT would seem
that the salt fields of Salton are mex
haustible. The salt is allowed to remain
in the pyramids until complete evapor-
alton of all water takes place, when it
is transferred to the fiat cars and car
ried to the mills at Salton. The fac
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