Show JA THE ff ITERATE coffery COff TRy in his commercial traveler in south america frank alborg writes we stopped at a number of the nl towns piragua pisagua auto sagasta and I 1 visited some of the mills or officials in order to see some thing of the industry deposits of the crude nitrate of soda called here baliche caliche are found in the pampa or rolling plateau beyond the first range of foothills in some places this pla Is but ten miles from the coast in others as far as fifty miles the pampa is an utterly barren desert on the surface there Is nothing to tempt the heart of man but a few feet down lies the nitrate stratum this pro much the appearance of rock salt and varies in color according to the purity of the deposits from a whit ish tint to a dark gray the upper earth is blown away with dynamite and then the baliche caliche is dug out with pick and shovel loaded on iron carts and carried up to the mills here the baliche caliche Is first broken into small pieces by heavy crushers and then put into large boiling vats inside these vats are colls of steam pipes by means of which the temper can be regulated accurately sea water Is poured in and the baliche caliche Is boiled for a certain time the liquid solution that results Is drawn off into settling vats which are exposed 1 to the open air and the sun evalora alon Is rapid and the pure nitrate ot soda soon begins crystallizing and set aling to the bottom after this has gone on for some time the remaining liquid Is drawn off and the crust of nitrate is scraped from the sides and bottom of the vat and thoroughly dried in the sun then it Is graded according to and packed for shipment in pound sacks most of the nitrates exported Is used as a fertilizer but a part goes X to the manufacture of and a high explosives the nitrate towns are even barer and drier and less in alting than most of the other bare dry towns of the coast to some 0 them fresh water is brought in pipes from a distance of more than miles before the day of these pipes it used to be sold in the streets by the gallon that water even now r t scarce yet is not plentiful la r haps some excuse for the av f that blows everywhere |