The Sunday Oregonian., July 22, 1917, SECTION FIVE, Page 4, Image 60

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Coprripht, 1917. by Prank G. Carpenter.
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airplane of your imagination and
fly with me to the northern coast
of the Gulf of Mexico. Sight your
machine for a point about 125- miles
west of New Orleans and about eight
miles south of New Iberia on the
Southern Pacific Railway. Pick out of
the marshy plain the hill known as
lAvery Island and drop gently down
bo as not to frigrhten the birds. We
are now in Longfellow's "Evangeline"
country, and In one of the great bird
homes of the world. What is more
Important, we are right above a moun
tain of the purest rock salt. It con
tains enough of the mineral to salt the
tails of all the birds upon earth, to pre
serve all the meat and fish and other
food products we" shall send to our al
lies in Europe. It contains enough to
furnish all the salt we need for muni
tions and feriltizers and other indus
trial uses, and enough to make count
less millions of statues like that of
Mrs. Lot on the shores of the Dead Sea.
We have come here to investigate
the salt, but our way to it is through
the homes of the birds, and we will
see them in passing. One of the own
ers of Avery Island is Mr. John A. Mc
Ilhenny, president of the Civil Service
Commission, whose chief hobby is the
preservation of the game birds of the
United States. He has 'a preserve on
the hill known as Avery Island, and
100,000 wild fowl come here every sea
eon to breed. Not far away is Marsh
Island, which Mrs. Russell Sage has
turned into a Winter home for the
birds. It has about 40,000 acres, and
Its wild fowl run into the millions.
Wre leave our airplane at Mcllhenny
Station and go by great ponds inclosed
in wire netting on the shores of which
15,000 ducks of many varieties are
hatching their eggs. The nests are old
cracker boxes covered with brush. We
see geese and other wild fowl as we
pass the preserve and make our way
up the mound or hill to the tall shaft
house which stands over the salt mine.
Here we enter the elevator and are
dropped down into the darkness, which
is so thick that it can almost be felt.
We have descended 600 feet, and all
the way has been through solid rock
alt. At the bottom we walk out into
galleries walled with salt and make
our way through one vast chamber
after another, all cut out of this crystal
white rock. The galleries, are so wide
that two Pullman trains could be run
through any one of them without
touching. The ceilings are 60 feet high
and each of the great rooms has I
cubic capacity equal to that of a five
etory house. There are scores of such
i-noms. and they are connected by rail
roads, upon which the pure salt, which
has been blasted down with dynamite
and broken up with picks, chisels and
led ires, is carried upon cars to the
shaft.
There comes a car now. It contains
three tons of this crystal white rock.
The white shows out in contrast with
the bare brown skin of the half-naked
neero who is driving the mule. More
than 1,000,000 tons of salt have al
ready been taken out of thi3 mine. It
has been blasted out of these mighty
chambers, the roofs of which are up
held by posts of solid salt 40 feet thick.
The mine is a. vast checkerboard of
such rooms, the squares of which are
these chambers with the posts at the
corners.
Now stop and look about you. We
rem to be in a palace of silver, the
walls of which sparkle with diamonds.
The white crystals throw back the
lisrht. and everywhere we look the
walls glisten and shine. We walk
tlowly. The carpet of this vast sub
terranean palace is this thick layer of
ground salt. It is like walking over
a dry sandy beach. We sink into the
salt half way to our shoe tops. We
cannot walk fast.
Here is a spot where they have Just
finished blasting. Some of the lumps
are as big as a cart. There is one that
weighs a half a dozen tons. Some of
these lumps are sold to the ranchers
of Texas and neighboring states. A
chunk of salt weighing a half ton al
most is dropped down into a field for
the cattle to lick. During the cotton
exposition of about a generation ago
they showed a statue of Lots wife
carved out of a single block of salt
from this mine. That statue was 10
feet in height, but it could easily have
been 100 feet high and proportionately
large in other directions.
During my trip through this salt
mine I was accompanied by Mr. Dan
Avery, the owner and the son, I think
of the man who discovered the great
salt deposit. He tells me that they
have already gone down through the
salt with diamond drills to a depth
of more than 2000 feet without reach
ing the bottom. The island is under
laid with a great block of salt which is
about two miles long, half a mile wide
and almost half a mile deep. This salt
Is joined together in one great rock,
and by chemical analysis it is more
than 99.8 pure. I have chipped of"
pieces of it. They looked like the finest
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quartz and much like rock candy. The
salt crystals are of different sizes.
Some are as large as a marrow-fat
pea, others as big as my fist and
larger. The salt is taken by the ele
vator to the shaft house, where it is
run through presses and put up in
bags and barrels to be shipped to the
market.
This is only one of the great salt
mounds of Southern Louisiana. Four
others are known to exist, the five
forming a great row of mounds, which
begin at the mouth of the Atchafalaya
River and run westward through the
marshes at wide intervals apart. The
first is Belle Isle. he next Cote
Blanche, the third Avery Island, the
fourth Weeks Island and the last the
one which Joseph Jefferson owned and
where he had his Winter home. They
are now mining salt on Weeks Island,
and the block there is said to contain
something like 6,000,000,000 tons of
pure white rock. The depth of the de
posit is unknown. The shafts have al
ready gone down 600 or 700 feet and
the bottom is still to be reached.
There are vast deposits of similar
salt just across the boundary of Louis
iana, in Texas. I have before me a re
port made by Professor E. T. 'Dumble,
who was formerly the state geologist.
He has investigated the salt deposits
near the Southern Pacific Railroad, and
he estimates that they alone contain
more than 1,500,000.000 tons of pure salt.
The Avery Island deposit is supposed to
contain at least 2,000,000,000 tons, so
that we have here along the Gulf of
Mexico known bodies of salt which are
enough to give more than two two
horse wagonloads of salt to every man.
woman and child in the world. The
Texas deposits are measured by the
depths of the wells already sunk, but
none of them has yet gone through.
There are four domes, or mounds, ly
ing down under the earth, each of
which is known to have a minimum
thickness of more than 1000 feet. In
other words, you could sink two Wash
ington monuments, one on top of the
other, into these salt beds, and they
would not reach the bottom. Mr. Dum
ble estimates that the salt thus brought
The sudden. National concern
over the future food supply em
braces poultry-raisers of every
degree who are expected to mob
ilize their knowledge. Econom
ical fowls such as the Muscovy,
of healthy, rapid growth and
thrifty habits are desirable.
Ducklings in barn or backyard
are marketable in three to four
months and always in demand.
BY MYRA KELSEY COX,
Experienced Poultrywoman.
N THESE days when the world is
reverting to fundamentals over to
morrow's food supply the man fea
tured is the producer. What may have
been last year's hobby is today's es
sential. The backyard poultryman who
dallied with hens for home-grown deli
cacies now occupies the enviable posi
tion of being able to contribute mate
rially to the world's dire need. Poul
try experience acquired in leisure as
sumes its real value as the demand
comes for more meat and more eggs.
Everywhere the farmer and his wife
the poultryman and the man with a
few hens, feel the stimulus not only
of H. C. L, but of the appeal, and are
preparing to do their part.
Complicating their task is the stren
uous problem of economical production
This year's poultry must be fed largely
on waste, such as screen wheat, faulty
corn, broken grain, garden left-overs.
Even the table scraps that support in
digent and indolent cats can be con
verted into a commodity. Pithy vegeta-
bles and marble-sized potatoes when
cooked are relished by poultry.
Worth of Economical Fowl.
Poultry recommends itself instantly
as a good Investment nowadays. None
beside the hen has a better letter -of
credit than the Muscovy duck, war
ranted noiseless, inoffensive, adaptable
and early-maturing. Though a common
fallacy believes it musky, it is unno
ticcable. Geese on good pasturage are
as economical till fattening time. Tur
keys run up a big board bill after Sep
tember. No other fowl approaching the
weight of the Muscovy can so satisfac
torily support Itself from start to fin
ish. Though an honest member of the
duck tribe, it lacks many faults of its
kinsmen. For that reason any person
reasonably situated can raise a few
Muscovies.
One drake and three to six ducks, ac
cording to environment, are sufficient
for the average barnyard flock. Their
THE SUNDAY
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to sight in the Damon mounds equals
more than 600,000,000 tons, and that the
great mound at South Dayton, Texas,
contains 66S.000.000. The Damon mound
is 587 feet from the surface of the earth.
and the Blue Ridge is 645 feet down. At
High Island, they first struck salt at
1300 feet, and when the drill had gone
down to a depth of double that, or al
most a half mile from the surface, they
were still in the salt.
The Damon mound is on the Brazos
River, not far from the Southern Pa
cific Railroad. It rises right out of the
prairie, and has a height of 83 feet. The
area is about 3000 acres. It was dis
covered in drilling for oil. The drills
first went through blue and red clay,
then through clay -nd sand, and then
passed through a bed of gypsum 378
feet thick. After that, there were sul
phur and gypsum, and then the pure
salt was reached. Texas also has salt
lakes, and there is a great deal of salt
mixed with the marshes of Southern
Louisiana.
I have been much interested in the
story of the salt mines here at Avery
Island. The first known of them was
when George Washington was still
serving as President of the United
States. It was in 1791 that a hunter
and trapper named John Hays found
here a salt spring, the brine of which
was so thick that it could be boiled
down into salt.
It was during the war of 1812, when
salt was high, on account of our war
with Great Britain, that a small salt
works was erected near the salt spring.
Almost 50 years later, when Judge D.
D. Avery was the owner of the island,
another big rise in salt occurred, on
account of the Civil War. This caused
Mr. Avery to make salt by boiling the
water. The salt rose to as high as
$15 a barrel, and both Confederates and
Federals depended upon Louisiana for
a part of their supply.
It was at this time that John M.
Avery .sent negro workmen to deepen
the wells and one of them came back
saying he had struck a sunken log and
could go no farther. Mr. Avery investi
gated and the solid bed of rock salt
was discovered. Since then they have
been mining salt here more or less
continuously, and as a result have out-
health and independence recommend
them to the negro. In the South they
form the chief feature first of 'cabin
scenes; of cabin feasts, later.
The extra grain they eat is scarcely
missed. Their eggs may be used, but
are saved for incubation. Their thick,
downy plumage is not despised as a
substitute' for goose feathers. The
Muscovy on range is practically a self-
feeder, minus the self-feeder's habit of
destructiveness. It is not a scavenger.
but feeds and thrives where other fowls
would subsist meagerly. Figuratively,
it is the pig of the poultry yard. It
grubs assiduously for worms, beetles
and roots. Flies are special dainties.
The little brown man of Nippon is a
wonder for leading nature into strange
ways. He grows mature trees that
measure less than two feet high: fowls
whi:h have tails 18 feet long and ban
tams with legs but one inch long. He
has been breeding them this way so
long that they won't grow any other
way. It is this oddity that accounts
for the popularity of the Japanese
Bantams.
There are several varieties of this
bantam, separated only by colors. In
shape they are Identically the same.
t WHITE JAPANESE BANTAMS
t 1
OREGONIAX, PORTLAND,
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lined the great block of salt which I
have described.
During the excavation they have dis
covered the bones of mastodons here
and there in the salt, and with them
Indian crockery ornamented with cir
cles and an imitation of basket work.
Some of the mastodon teeth found have
weighed over five pounds each, and
one mastodon thigh bone was over nine
inches in diameter.
There are different theories as to the
origin of the salt. Dr. Dumble says
that for a long time it was supposed
that it came from large lagoons lying
along the Gulf of Mexico. These lagoons
were protected from the tides by low
sandbars, but the storms filled them
with sea water. The hot sun evap
orated the water and thus built up layer
after layer of Bait, until this enormous
thickness was reached. One objection
to this theory is that sea water is not
pure sodium, or common salt, and also
that there is a great deal of lime and
gypsum on top of the salt deposits.
Another theory is that the mounds
Young Muscovies soon seize the, oppor
tunity presented by a sleeping cow in
flytime, and forthwith establish them
selves as fly-catchers-in-waiting. Little
ducks fearlessly circle a calf, hopping
up and down after flies. They respond
to supplementary feeding of meal,
wheat screenings, cracked corn, mill
feed, bran, rolled oats, and so on. They
can and do thrive without grain, but
must have range to some degree. Hav
ing no crop, this duck is a continuous
feeder and requires much roughage.
Familiarity with Muscovy nature re
veals traits decidedly anomalous to
duck disposition. The warty knots at
the base of the drake's bill, his huge.
They, are popular among the bantam
breeders of England, the United States
and Canada, and every Winter notable
specimens are exhibited at the shows.
They attract considerable attention,
and many are sold for ornamental pur
poses. Good specimens command prof
itable prices.
The little hens lay well, sit, hatch and
rear their own chicks. There-is keen
rivalry to produce the best and long
est fantail, the shortest legs, as well as
the smallest fowls. The standard calls
for a weight of 22 to 26 ounces for
males and 20 to 22 ounces for females.
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JULY 22, 1917.
III "
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were caused" by currents of hot saline
solutions forced up through the earth.
These solutions cooled as they came in
contact with the colder strata and the
salt crystals were formed. There is no
doubt, however, but that the deposits
were formed ages ago. They date back
for thousands, and probably tens of
thousands, of years.
At any rate, the United States may
feel safe as to Its salt supply. We have
enough salt in different parts of the
Union to supply ourselves and our chil
dren's children to any number of gen
erations to come, and to enable us to
export vast amounts to other parts of
the world. Our present consumption
is about 107 pounds a year for every
man, woman and child in the country.
It amounts to about 10 pounds per
week for every family, and a large
part of this goes into manufactures
such as the packing of meat smd in
other preservative works which are
now important on account of the war.
The salt mined in 1915 was valued at
unwieldy size and lumbering fait con
fer upon him a bellicose air. The duck
Is gentler, timid, but responsive to ad
vances when accompanied with bribes
of corn, till she has established her
friendship. Neither has a quack worth
mentioning. Fences are a favorite
perch, and there is a tale of a duck
that nested in a tree. When scared,
young and thing Muscovies take pro
longed flights. They must be handled
with care else they may do damage
with their long, curved toenails, their
chief method of defense.
The duck nests in dark corners,
under mangers and boxes, in litter, se
cretes it with a turkey's cunning and
shares the guinea's revulsion to having
it disturbed. Collecting her eggs up
sets her arrangements, and she prompt
ly seeks a new nest. She lines it with
down and proceeds to settle herself for
a five weeks' incubation. Whenever
she leaves it, she covers the eggs with
a downy blanket, no matter how hot
the weather.
The Muscovy, originally from a warm
climate, endures the rigors of zero
weather if given reasonable protection.
Nature controls the production of eggs
so that ducklings rarely appear before
settled weather. While her sensitive
ness to cold weather operates as a han
dicap to egg production, she costs less
to board. The eggs are indistinguish
able from those of Pekins, with a high
percentage of fertility. The same trick
of trade applicable to other poultry
works with the Muscovy: namely, rob
bing her when broody, giving her eggs
to a hen or incubator, and releasing her
for a new laying. A good duck pro
duces often two broods a season and
is useful several years.
Mrthodn With Tooik MawoTlra.
Managing the young ones depends
upon the environment. Nature's plan
is easiest. Two days after hatching,
the proud mother may be seen conduct
ing her brood to the nearest water, ex
horting them with a sibilant but im
perative hiss. Then she hastens to the
fields and raises her family in cheerful
independence, or she may accept grate
fully a daily supper of some sort of
mash.
It is Interesting to note that the
youngsters hatch very leisurely, often
consuming two days in cracking the
shell and emerging, in marked contrast
to the haste of the guinea. They should
not be taken from the nest too soon.
Having been accustomed for weeks to
a sustained high heat, they are sus
ceptible to chill which will speedily end
their career. If, as sometimes happens.
Mother Muscovy mlsreckons the calen
dar and presents a brood too early, the
nest with its downy lining may be
transferred to a coop where the mother
may be domiciled. It means the saving
of the ducklings.
Baby Muscovies learn to know the
coop and hen with alacrity. They must
have a constant supply of drinking
water and grit, with three dally meals
of soft mash and some sort of meat
food, such as milk, curd or boiled egg
the average price of 31 cents a barrel,
or in the neighborhood of one-tenth of
a cent per pound. We used a little less
than, $12,000,000 worth that year.
That salt came from 14 different
states, and it was sold in all grades,
from the big lumps used for the salt
ing of cattle to the finest of dairy and
table salts. More than two-thirds of
the product came from the salt wells of
Michigan and New York. Almost 6.
000,000 barrels, came from Ohio, while
the mines of Kansas supplied almost
3.000,000. More than a million tons
came from California, and there was
quite a lot manufactured on, the shores
of the great Salt Lake.
The Great Salt Lake Is Rix times as
salty as the oceans, and the Dead Sea
has far more saline matter than the
Great Salt Lake. Nevertheless, the
waters of the oceans have so much
mineral salt that the amount is beyond
human comprehension. The scientists
who have made chemical analysis of
sea water estimate that every 100
pounds of It contains nearly 3V4 pounds
of salt. They estimate that a cubic
Denied this, they will develop a morbid
appetite for dead things. The first de
cayed material they find introduces
"limber-neck" into the flock, the only
disease which troubles them, and is
almost always fatal. Young Muscovies
can be penned successfully, but their
board bill devours the profit. Fresh
crab-shells are a favored and cheap ad
dition to duck diet in tidewater coun
ties. Curd is usually available on
farms. Fresh meat scraps from the
table, ground up, are excellent, an,'
contribute to satisfying the craving of
these meat-eaters, if they lack the op
portunity to get sufficient worms and
beetles.
At the age of 3V4 to 4 months they
are full-feathered, weighing three to
Ave pounds (according to sex), and
The building up of a highly
productive flock commences in
the selection of strong, healthy
chicks for future breeders. The
culls should be marketed. Next
week's article has to do with
this Important subject.
marketable. Kept too long after this
they gain weight at expense of tender
ness of meat.
The person who wishes to try this
fowl in a town lot will find it a better
plan to buy eggs for hatching instead
of maintaining a flock which would be
expensive.
Much satisfaction arises In one's ex
perience with liLlie Muscovies. They
are not subject to gapes, soon out
grow tenderness to chill and damp
grass, are not subject to parasites, and
grow very friendly. No scratched-up
flower gardens, no nibbled vegetables
are left in their wake.
Nature's Defense Creat.
Man's helplessness, should the birds
be hindrered from destroying hurtful
insect life, may be illustrated by the
"scalp act" of Pennsylvania. Bounties of
$90,000 were paid for exterminating
hawks and owls, with the result that
agriculture was damaged to the amount
of $3,850,000. due to the Increase of
small rodents. The Legislature of Mon
tana offered a reward for the destruc
tion of these little animals, which the
hawks and owls had attended to free of
charge, bu in six months a special ses
sion of the Legislature had to be called
to repeal the act, or the state would
have been bankrupt.
A caterpillar will eat twice its weight
of leaves in a day. In the same propor
tion a horki would consume a ton of
hay In 24 hours. So, insects that sub
sist on the leaves of trees -nri plants
should be handed over to our bird po
licemen. Uundreds of grasshoppers
were found in the craw of a bird in
troduced into Australia to abate the in
sect scourge.
Man has conquered the larth. the air
mile of ocean water contains salt to a
weight of 150.000,000 tons, which would
be enough to load 10,000 steamers of
15,000. tons each. They have figured
out what would happen if the salts
were all taken out of the ocean: that
is, if it were evaporated and laid down
on the bottom of the sea. The result
would be that the seabed would be
built up with salt to a height of 175
feet, or to a height something like
that of a 16 or 17-story flat. Now, the
surface of the land is only about one-
third of that of the oceans, so that if
the salt in the oceans were spread out
over the land, the earth would be
buried in salt to a depth of over 500
feet, or as deep almost as the Wash
ington monument is high. If it were
dropped down on the United States it
would cover every bit of this country
mountains, valleys and plains to a
depth of between one and two miles,
and leave enough to form a deep salt
bed on all of our outlying possessions.
Nevertheless, there are parts of the
world that have practically no salt at
all. I have been in some of the wet
lands of Africa, where salt was so
scarce that the children sucked it like
candy, and there are regions where
salt passes as money. In China salt is
a monopoly of the government, and the
man who gets a concession for selling
it in almost any large district is soon
able to lay up a fortune. A large part
of the salt of China comes from the
brine of the ocean, and in the western
part of the country.about a hundred
miles from the city of Chengtu. there
are salt wells which have been pumped
for more than a thousand years. Soma
of the wells are about a half mile In,
depth. The salt is conveyed from them
to the evaporating houses in bamboo
tubes. The production of the district
is something like 300,000 tons per year,
and it is carried out over the country
in boats and on pack animals and on
the backs of coolies. The cost of pro
ducing the salt is about a half cent a
pound, or about five times as much as
the average wholesale sellin.; price of
our salt. The salt tax is almost 1 cent
per pound, and in addition comes the
"squeeze" exacted by the merchant'
who gets the concession.
There are mines in Europe where
they have been taking out salt for
seven or eight centuries. I visited
some at Salzburg, on the frontier be
tween Germany and Austria, where
they have been getting out sc.lt since
the days of the Romans. There is a
great mine at Wieliczka, near Cracow,
where the deposit is more than 1000
feet deep. It is 20 miles wide and aa
long as from New York to Pittsburg.
They have been mining that salt f-r
more than 700 years, and it is said
that the miners have established a
village away down under the surface
of the earth, the houses being made of
salt rock.
and the sea, but Insects are still the
lords of the universe. Some 300,000
spe-os have been described, possiTily
twice that number still remain un
known. The bird is nature's defense
against man's insect foes. Protect tho
birds. From the People's Hom-j Jour-'
nal.
Health and Beauty Hints Given.
It Is almost as important to teach
your child to he cheerful as it is to
teach him to breathe deep and to brush
his teeth daily. Being cheerful aids
to digestion, quickens the circulation.
In fact, gives tone and vigor to the
entire body.
It Is said that excessively oily hair
is usually caused by an unhealthy con
dition of the eystem and that a person
so afflicted must give her body proper
nourishment to bring it to a normal
state before local applications will be
effective.
FRECKLES
Now la tbe Time, to Get Rid of Those
I'srly Spots.
There's no longer the slightest need
of feeling ashamed of your freckles, as
the prescription othine double
strength Is guaranteed to remove
these homely spots.
Simply get an ounce of othine dou
ble strength from any druggist and
apply a little of it night and morning
and you should soon see that even the
worst freckles have begun to disap
pear, while the lighter ones have van
ished entirely. It Is seldom that more
than an ounce Is needed to completely
clear the skin and gain a beautiful
clear complexion.
Be sure to ask for the double strength
othine, as this is sold under guarantee
of money back if It fails to remove
f reckles. Adv.
Quick, Safe, Way
to Remove Hairs
(Toilet Talks.)
Keep a little delatone powder on
your dressing table and when ugly,
hairy growths appear, make a paste
with a little of the powder and some
water, apply and let remain on the
hairy surface for two or three min
utes, then rub off, wash the skin and
the hairs have vanished. This treat
ment is quite harmless and rarely more
than one application is required, but
to avoid disappointment care should be
used to buy the real delatone. Adv.