Show A GREAT SALT FIELD How Product IB Obtained In the Mid dlo of tho Colorado Desert In the middle of the Colorado desert a little to the north of the Mexican border and 2C4 feet below the level of the sen lies a field of crystallzed salt more than a thousand acres In extent presenting a surface as white as snow and beneath the noonday sun so dazzling daz-zling that the naked eye cannot stand its rudlnnce it otrcchea away for mllos and miles about Salton Cal an ocean of blazing blistering white Here dally throughout the year men are at work overturning the great deposit de-posit with massive plows and scrapers getting it Into great piles preliminary to putting it through the refining process pro-cess The salt plows used to secure the harvest arc great fourwheeled Implements Im-plements driven by steam and managed man-aged by two men The salt crust Is thrown up In parallel ridges then laborers la-borers with hoes work It to and fro In the water washing out the dirt preliminary pre-liminary to stacking It in moundo to be taken to the mill Salt springs In adjacent foothills are constantly contributing to the deposit and so heavily laden are they with almost pure salt that the plow has hardly passed on before a new crust has formed In the furrow left This fact renders It unnecessary to operate more than a small portion of the vast deposit At present only ten acres are worked As may be supposed work In these fields Is performed under the moat trying conditions No white man can stand the Intense heat nnd for this reason the work Is done wholly by Japanese Jap-anese and by Coahulla Indians Of these the Indians are by far the better bet-ter adapted to the work tho Japanese performing only portion sewing the sacks In which the salt Is shipped The atmosphere laden as it Is with particles parti-cles of salt gives rise to a painful thirst and the only available drinking water comes from a nlngle well It Is warm and Illtasting Beautiful mirages frequently appear above the great salt field In the daytime day-time sky plctureo of magnificent cities and flowerdotted trecohaded floldfj The moonlight too produces wondrously wondrous-ly beautiful effects upon the great field of gloaming salt For several weeks In the year the thermometer on the salt field averages HO degrees and the reflection of the sun produces a glare like that from a furnace Thodeposits vary In thickness from ton to twenty inches and form n solid crust over the great marsh It In estimated that about 700 tons are now plowed up dally New York Tribune |