Rocky Ford enterprise., 1915-01-29
DRAWS MOISTURE UPWARD FROM earth
By Simple Process Charles Kellogg Draws
Water and Provides Brooks for lrrigating
Crops on California Mountain

Cattle staggered along from bar
rem hilltop to dry valley, hard-baked
| by merciless sun. A while they
would struggle for existence, crop
ping occasional mouthfuls of parched
grass. Then they would drop, with
tongues hanging from their mouths,
and lie painting until the peace OF
death glazed their eyes.
Ranchers watched the cloudless
skies that seemed to glare down with
sullenness that came to be reflect
ed in the faces OF people. They set
tied back with listless apathy, re-
signed to the death of the cattle, the
burning up of their crops, the hope
less poverty of hard times.
And then came the miracle. To
cattle dying all summer long from
lack of water, came not from
Charles Kellogg, the man who lived
on the top of the hill. Come and
take your cattle away from my place
commanded the note. They are maxi
ing muck holes OF my springs, and
dying from drinking too much
water"
The old man laughed, and the vii
layers laughed with him. but they
must humor the madman. this Kel-
logg, who was always digging, dig
ging in the earth who built chimney
fireplaccs in his home. who sang bird
songs and who now claimed to .,ay :
water when there had been nol-,sfI
in three years. ~
So the old man climbed tofsNSS
and when he returned TO thdSI jA
again. several hours later, Il sJas
pale with the pallor of the mas >, &ho
has witnessed miracle WhenSthey
questioned him about the madman, he
shook his head
Up there on the hill-it was be-
yond belief, yet he had seen it with
his own eyes. He had seen sprinys
leashing forth, not from o..3. but
from ten places in the ground. He
had seen little brook flowing stead
lily down the ravine on the other side
of the hill. He had seen young fruit
trees. set forth in regular rows, on
the terraced hillside. that were green
and sturdy. Cucumbcrs were abund-
ant in little patch; tomato trees
were as high rs man. There was
water crcss growing beside the LITTLE
brook, and water plants and flowers
of all kinds.
Again the villagers laughed Here
was another madman. A touch OF the
sun, probably, as he had climbed the
hill. A few OF the more curious ones
went up to see for themselves, how
ever, and now all the ranchers of the
Santa Clara valley of California have
been touched by the. madness. the
Kellogg madness, which grows water
just the way an ordinary man grows
cabbages.
burned Charlie Kellogg. the naturalist
and vaudeville player. at the state
Today, those who have not seen with
their own eyes sneer at him. for the
most part, as a "fakcr.' To his neigh
bors, however. he is little less than 4
supernatural being. All because he
had made careful, intelligent study
for many years of the earth ard the
laws which govern it. until today he
sees many things which are hidden
from the ordinary eye. He hears
sounds which are above the pitch of
the ordinary ear. And he knows the
workings of physical laws to such
good purpose that he has proved TO
the people of his immediate neighbor-
hood, the Santa Clara valley of Cal
ifornia, that he can produce the in
verse process OF rain.
After all. it's a simple process by
which Kellogg has brought forth
barren land. All of natures laws are
simple when they are understood.
This new method of sub-irrigation.
which promises to work marvels on
dry land. wherever there is slight
slope to land, depends upon a single
primary lay OF physics, which has
been familiar to the scientific world
for hundreds of years-thc law OF
capillary attraction.
All the earth is sponge, explains
Kellogg. a sponge which is full of
water. When the rain falls upon the
air, it falls not upon smooth sur
face but upon millions of little open
mouths which eagerly drink in the
moisture. Only the surface moisture
of the earth is later reabsorbed by
the sun. The rest of it sinks into the
earth deeper. deeper. deeper and is
tcrstices which honeycomb the earth.
How to draw forth this moisture
for the benefit OF farmers and ranch
men who always must be scratching,
scratching the soil nowadays in or
der to raise crops is a problem which
has concerned Charles kellogg for
three years. A year and half ago
he began to work upon a scheme
which he believed had solved the
problem. Ii was not new idea-it
was just an adaptation OF an idea
which had been tried many years be-
fore by scientist in the West Indies
and the principle of which was