Evening Star Newspaper, August 2, 1925, Page 70

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTO D. C, AUGUST 2 d Savage Steer and Whistling Lasso Furnish Range Rider’s Thrill 1925—PART 5 AUTHOR'S NOTE. What I've wrote here is without the help of the dictionary or any course in story writing. I didn't want to dilude what I had to say with a lot of imported words that I couldn’t of handled. Good English 1s all right, but when T want to say something, I belleve in hitting straight to the point without fish ing for decorated language. I was born and raised in the cow country, 1 am a cowboy, and what's put down in these three articles is not material that I've hunted up-— it's what I've lived, seen and went through before I ever had any idea that my writing and sketches would ever appear before the public. BY WILL JAM HEN we speak of the long horns in the cow coun we most genera set bac! some think back a whole lot. And, thinking, | sometimes wonder if the Spaniards | lized when they brought the first| them cattle over from Spain that ' s responsible for the good they i stocking up the Southwest d making it the starting of the cow country it turned out to be. 2 couple of hundred years | them first cattle to multiply un\ii snread out, so that the whole of Cali nfa and plum across to the Guif of Mexico was cut up by the trails them ming herds would ma There 1e a time when their trails run in h the buffalo’s down in Texas. They drank of the same waters and grazed on the same flats. They changed some in build to fit in with what the country called for, and came right up with the buffalo in speed and endurance. The long-h stayed wil "ned, long-legged ¢ nd mighty spooky couldn’t afford to pack extra fat, a it'd hinder 'em in their running. and | de of keeping the few people in | meat and supplying the markets with hide they had nothing to do but cumulate and stay wild ¢ done all them thing But, all too soon (a cowmen will tell yo blazed a way toward the gold fields and other glittering facts the | West held out for them who wanted to_come and get it With the folks piling in sky high nd more of ‘em coming steady from ost the ocean, it wasn't long till there was use for them buckskin cat- tle, and other than for the rawhide they was packing. The stockman at was already there ahead of the crowd started to keep better tab of his stock, and finally got to thinking so much of 'em all of a sudden that he'd just hang high and dry caught stealing any of them c The cattle, getting more handling | and care, naturally got more gentle, and got so in time that you keep sight of 'em and not even to get vour horse out of a log in the thick brush or rocks tries and wherever it was so rough that the riders rode around, there was big herds stayed wild and nobody seemed to want to fool with them just then. But a time come when instead of them wild bunches increasing as they should they was gradually dwindling down fo a few. Them few was mak- ing themselves mighty hard to find, though, and kept a-making such a z00d job of hiding away in their rough countries that they held their little bunches to near normal in size. ‘Them wild ones scattered along up through the Rockies into the North- ern States. And wherever you could find deer, elk and mountain lions in the cow country was where you'd also find them wild “orejanas,” but they was even harder to get sight of than ; deer. They'd always see you first, and had the sage chicken beat when it come to hiding. They'd stand still as a petri- fied tree and let you ride past within a few yards of ‘em if they thought they was well enough hid. But If there was no hiding place handy they'd take to running, and I never yet seen a horse that could catch up with ‘em in their brushy, rocky territory. T VE seen 'em sometimes a little out in the open and where I thought I had good running chance at ‘em. T'd take my rope down and try my Juck, but that critter' would leave me as though I was standing still and hit out for the best goat country you ever saw, hardly ever breaking out of a long trot, the likes of which would sure make any mountain-raised horse use all the fastest gaits he had. , But there was no catching up to within roping distance of 'em. Amongst them wild bunches you'd sometimes find near pure-bred Here- fords and Durhams what had turned wild from not getting enough handling or being missed out of the round-up for a couple of years. Others had been let go when they was wanting to fight some rider what tried to turn em too quick, and that rider, being too busy at the time to take the orneriness out of one of 'em, just left her behind or whichever way she wanted 10 go. With the result that (like some hu. mans) that critter thought she had somebody buffaloed for sure, and, head high, pacing pretty, hits out for the tall, rough and uncut to join the rest of the wild bunch. In the Southern States, like Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, was where the wild stuff stayed wild the longest. They had bigger and rougher scopes of country to run in than could be found further north, and they wasn't affected much by the upbreeding of the tamer herds. The reason was in fine me of , the rail- | expect it | snorting_getaway. ‘Cowboy Writer Tells of Further Experiences With “Long-Horned, Long-Legged Critters” and Describes Sthmpede by Herd. what straved away and joined 'em there'd be two long-horned “Sonora | Reds"" butting in'and keeping up the| old strain. Them wise hombres would feed in| the open from sundown till sunup.| tank up on water while it was still | dark and then hide in the thick brush | I day long, never coming out till the went down again. Solld stockade traps was bullt now and again and big hunks of salt was used for the bait, and after letting things lay quiet for 2 week or a month, ot till the critters got over being suspicious and came regular to get their lick of the salt, a drive wag made. with the idea to cor- ral the bunch just when they'd least A few—mighty few—would be cor- ralled in and the rest would make a | Them few that'd get caught would also get away sooner or later, for the corral couldnt hold | up against them stout necks very long, and they had a way of working with them horns of theirs that would | tear up 'most anything. The stockmen kept a-worrying and thinking of new ways to handle them outlaws and tame 'em down so they could be run with the herd-broke cat- tle. What was worse vet was that a lot' of young stock strayed away and Jjoined them wild bunches every vear, and the stockman saw where he sure had to do sometnjng about it. So, worrying along on that subject, a new scheme was hatched out. Part of that scheme was that after each cowboy had picked two ropes, one being tied on the back of the sad- dle for emergency, and mounted on the best rope-horse the outfit could hand 'em; they'd line out about 20 riders of the kind that savvied how to handle the whale-line in the thick brush. Like one time when a big circle was made. I was with the bunch, and by the cracking of the brush ahead once in a while we could tell that a few of the critters was stirred up and getting together. Our intentions was to keep ‘em going straight, but the snaky crit- ters was leery of openings. They stuck along to where the brush was the thickest, and we'd have to lean away down alongside our horse's neck to keep from getting pulled off by the thick branches. * % % x VEN at that, there was places them daggone cattle went through on a high lope and where a lone horse couldn’t follow on a walk, and we had to go around. All that time them wild ones kept on the run, and we sure had to do some tall traveling to keep track of their whereabouts. ‘We didn't have a chance to crowd ‘e, but we kept maneuvering around and riding till we had 'em near the little openings, and then things started to happen and we prepare for action. Not worrying about what limbs and stickers could do to our faces and hands, we spur on full speed ahead, each cowboy with his hat pulled down bhard a-squinting through his horse's ears and packing a “hungry loop.” ‘We form a circle around the “oreja- nas” (unbranded cattle) before they know what's what and we've got ‘em jammed in a small opening. But from all indications they don't figger on us holding ‘em there, and we don't—not no more than a second. But in that second we have enough time to each pick our vietim. They break through and by us in all directions. Loops are spread out and circle around big longhorns, the slack is pulled up, and the steers are 86ing one way while the ponies are going another. There's an awful com- motion and - mixture of dust, ropes, steers, ponies and men. Hollering and laughing cowboys, bellering-mad crit- tera and cracking branches all throwed n. The critter that come my way and I tied onto was good enough to hit the end of the rope fast and wicked and bust hisself into a fine laying position. I takes advantage of it and ties him down right there, and quicker than you could wink I shakes down my other rope and prepares for an- other victim, sees one what's trying to get out of the entanglements and snares it. 4 About that time I feels myself go- ing up about 10 feet, makes a circle in the air, and come down in a catclaw bush. I gets a glimpse of my horse where he'd come down flat on his back, and then I see the cause of the It was a big spotted bull—the kind what wouldn't let a small object like a horse and a man keep him from going straight ahead to where he was headed, and T happened to be in his way. But he don't get to go far even at that. Two ropes pile In on him at the big open flats, and even though they was wild as ever we had ‘em where they’'d soon tame down We made a few more runs, and finally cleaned that range of all the wild stuff, putting 'em where they’d have to be good and to stay. They “AFTER WHICH THE STEER 1S MOST GENERALLY DUBIOUS ABOUT STARTING ANOTHER FIGHT. AND WILL MOST LIKELY LOPE BACK KIND OF PEACEABLE.” once from two other riders. One of them ropes snaps like a thread and sings by like a bullet, but it checked him some till another rope was layed in the place of it, and it wasn't long till he was stretched out like any com- mon critter. In the meantime, my little horse had picked himself up and was holding his own against the critter I'd caught, and that critter outweighed him a good 100 pounds. My saddle was slipping and T scrambles out of the scratching catclaw bush just in time to pull ‘er straight, gives the steer some and then goes the other way that critter down and tying ’er in good time. The dust settles some and I glances over the little halt a mile opening.. T can only see about half of the boys who are tying down what they caught, and scattered along in the opening is somewhere around 15 head of tied critters. But I can still hear the brush a-cracking, and, wondering if I can be of any help, rides into the thick of it. A mile away is another and smaller opening, and there was the rest of the boys with more tied critte The cow foreman was rolling a smoke and acted real satisfled with the catch we'd made. A little bit of a bow- “IF A LONE COW WAS MAKING A LOSIN picked up on fat and gradually lost their wild wasn't long till they was just as con- tented in the big flats as they was in the brush where we'd got 'em out of. When Old Mexico turned all upside down some «years ago on account of the ”na(‘;nos" wanting more beans and maybe a little land of their own, the range there was well stocked up and full of the long-horned cattle. Some of the ‘‘majordomos” began rounding up the stock fast as they could and taking 'em across the line in the U. 8., where they was sold to American cattle buyers, who turned ‘em over to the cow outfits and scat- tered 'em all through the range coun- tries plum up to Canada. I well remember one Spring when some of them long-horned Mexico stuff was shigped north and turned loose in the rivar breaks and bad lands up there. There was about 10,000 head of ‘em. When we unloaded 'em at the railroad they was mighty weak, and mostly all head and horns from the suffering they'd went through in the country they’d just left ‘They was trailed for a few hundred miles and turned loose amongst the gumbo and many-colored pinnacles, but there was feed aplenty, and the FIGHT TRYING TO PROTECT HER CALF, ALL SHE HAD TO DO WAS TO LET OUT A CALL AND THERE'D BE A ING IT.” HERD OF BIG STEERS, ANSWER- legged hombre from Texas had went ru&x months them cattle ranged in there and broke the record by catching and tying three of the wild ones, all about a mile apart. But none of us had done bad, for out of the 20 riders was 24 caught orejanas. * * ¥ % THB foreman was sharpening his knife, the while remarking that a few more runs like this one would soon clean the range of the wild stuff. And when the operation is performed on them critters we'd caught and we leaves 'em free it sure didn't take 'em long for 'em to reach the brush line again. But there they'd stop and mighty quick turn around and paw the earth. Something had gone wrong, and some- how or other they'd took a dislike to that thick brush where they used to hide and run so well. They tried to make cover a few times while we rode by headed back for camp, but each time they'd have to turn back, and, wild-eyed, stare at us till we got out of sight. “It might be a few days before they can work their way out and on the big flat with the other cattle,” the boss remarked as we rode on, be there to get their water, and once they're out of this brush all the cow- boys in the world couldn’t drive 'em back in. Sure enough, in a few days they was out of the brush and mixing along that for every one well bred critter - “IT WAS A BIG SPOTTED BULL, THE KIND WHAT WOULDN'T LET A SMALL OBJECT LIKE A HORSE AND A MAN KEEP HIM FROM GO- ING STRAIGHT AHEAD TO WHERE HE WAS HEADED, AND I HAP- PENED TO BE IN HIS WAY.™” whole upheaval making his getaway. with the other range stuff. They'd lost “all hankering for anything but sure made 'em hard to recognize, both in looks and action. They hadn’t seen a human in all that time, and when I say they was wild just puts it kind of mild to what they really was. ‘When time come to round ‘em up that Fall us boys was glad to find that there'd be very few drags in them, if any, and there wasn't. We'd ride the top of the ridges, let out a war whoop, fire a few shots from our six-shooters, and them steers wasn't slow getting down into the draws. You could near hear their tails a-popping they'd slide off the side of a pinnacle, and all you could tell of their whereabouts was the dust cloud they'd stir up. ‘There maybe was no rider to within a mile of 'em, but once they'd get kettled and stampede away they never knowed when to stop. * ko % BL’T the average of them cattle w mighty nice to handle. There wa: no slow poky riding when they was around, and if you knowed their ways everything was hunkydory; if you didn’t, you'd most likely find yourself doing a lot of wild riding without re- sults, only maybe wear your horse out. Some of the bunches we'd round up would be so wild that even while holding tRe herd on the cutting grounds they'd keep on milling around and keep up a high lope. No man would ride inside of that herd unless he wanted 'em to just fly away like a bunch of quail. The cut- ting out was done from the outside of the herd, and when a steer was ‘wanted out the rider would just clip in on him, separating him from the rest of the herd before he knowed it. He'd come out of the edge like a cannon ball, and the cowboy closest to him would sure have to do some tall riding to keep that steer from hitting for the hills instead of for the “cut where he was wanted. There was times when the steer would get spooky and mad and wouldn't turn even if you'd fan him acrost the face with your rope. Sometimes that fan- ning would get him on the “prod” (Aighting mad), and then them long horns of his would get mighty dan- gerous to both man d hors But the cowboy er lets a critter get He'l] take his rope down, shake out a loop and dab it on around that six-foot spread of horns as the steer rushes in on him, misses (sometimes), and on past. ‘The steer turns and makes another grand rush, and the cowboy will stay ahead out of his reach, letting the slack of his rope drag on the ground. And when that same steer steps over the whaleline dragging alo: him {s when something f,. pens which sure upsets his plans of attack and everything in general. ‘The cow-horse’ll pick up speed, the rope’ll tighten up, and of a sudden that ornery critter will find his head brought up right alongside his hind quarters, lifted up in the air a few feet, only to be jerked down again, und not at all gently. The wind is knocked out of him sudden and he's tied down with the “piggin string” before he can get it back. The cowboy might leave him lay there to cool off for a spell and ride back to the herd, coiling up his rope on the way. When that steer is let up again he's most generally dubious about starting another fight, and will most likely lope back to the cut kind of peaceable. In starting a cut with them kind of cattle the first few that are cut from |out from getting too frisky or lone- ideas and speed, and it} some. the main herd for that ‘“cut” (as we call the bunch separated out) some- times couldn't be held in one spot, and they would have to be roped and tied down. We'd Kkeep on a-tying ‘em down ]l there was enough there to keep the others we'd still be cutting ~—xe KinTnee s L] * ok % % 'HEM what was tied down was a kind of an attraction for the others that was foot-loose, and they'd stick around taking a sniff at the tied crit- ters till there was enough of a herd cut out with 'em to keep 'em all com- pany. After that they was easy enough to hold till the herd was worked. I'm sorry to say for the cowboy that there ain't no more of them cattle left; that is, not enough of 'em to speak of. The few you'll find are in the movies or following the rodeos, where the contestants ride and rope ‘em both. Then there might be a few more running loose on the range or up in the hills and turned wild again, | would happen every day while riding but you might just as well say that| they’re gone, and gone for good. For with the limit of the range there is nowadaws there's got on it that'll bring the most value per head, and I can’t say that the long: horn was ever much of a beef pro- ducer, not compared with the mixed Hereford and Durham stock you'll find on the range now. * ok ok x ND when I say I'm sorry for the cowboy that there’s no more of the long-horn, it's that I know how much the cowboy liked to work them cattle. 1 know how nice they was to stretch a new rope on and how hard one of them gteers would hit the other end, take alf the kinks out of it, and make ‘ep sing the whole 40-foot length. Y and them cattle was a lot of ‘r})any. too, and always up to some ing. If they'd stampede, they al- ways done a good, interesting job of it and make us ride for all we was worth, and then some; and even when the nights was still and qulet they make you wish you could see through the dark so you could tell what they'd be up to then. Like, for instance, the whole herd may be bedded down and resting con- tented like, two or three of us boys would be riding around ‘em steady, keeping our distances apart and sing- ing to 'em as we'd ride,.and all would seem hunkydory. But there was al ways a few of them natural-born leaders. in each herd—the kind that never sleeps much—and them would sure have to be watched mighty close. They'd wait till the riders made the round and was far enough away so they could make a sneak without be- ing heard. Then they'd ease out and step light till they was far enough and safe to break into a run and make their getaway. But us boys was on night guard for the purpose of keeping 'em all to- gether, and that we tried to do, with the result that not many could ever sneak out without we cayght up with ‘em and turned 'em back in the herd. You couldn’t very well go to sleep on the job when them cattle was around, and whether it be on dayfellers laying around anywheres and to be cattle | {distance would sure make themselves herd, night guard or on circle, they had a way about 'em that sure kept a | cowboy close to his saddle. There was | plenty of times when them critters would get overornery and when the| cowboy would cuss 'em for a brain ]‘ less animal, but there was things| amongst 'em what would make the cowboy think again, and he'd wind up to admiring 'em and wondering how they could be so wise. I remember how down in the border States, ‘where the water holes are miles from the feed, the cattle would string out every two or three days and head for the troughs, 8 to 12 miles up into the foothills. There'd be a rocky trail most of the way over and too long for the little calves to make, so they'd be left behind Instinet, or maybe brains, made them little week-old fellers find a hid ing spot before their mammies left for the day trip to water. They'd cuddle up under any kind of brush where they'd be hid best and go to sleep till their mammies came back. Many a time I've rode in on 'em when they was hiding that way, but they wouldn't move, and you couldn’t see ‘em unless your horse near stepped on ‘em. If they did have to move, they wasn't at all slow about it, and for a hard to catch. They'd travel along at full speed, make a circle, and if by that time you was gone would come right back, lay down and hide at the exact spot where their mammy'd left em I've seen times when there'd be half a dozen or more of them little calves left behind that way and all hid along within a few feet of one another. One of them would maybe zet out of his hiding place to stretch for a while, then up would come another one, till they was all out and a-stretching. Then of a sudden you'd hear a little beller out of one of 'em, and, tail up, kicking and a-bucking, he would race out acrost the flat, make his little cir- cle, and come back. The rest of ‘em would take up his lead and perform the same, and play on that way till all the stiffness from the hiding position they'd been in was gone, when they'd hide again and wait for their mammies to relieve "em. x> BUT what aiways used to set me to thinking the most was when I'd come across a bunch of them little not at all hid. The reason they wasn't hiding just then was a good one, for right amongst 'em would be a full- grown, long and lanky steer with horns ‘of the kind that could more than meet an argument with ‘most anything That steer would stay on the job a8 guardian till the mothers trailed back. Along about sundown yeu could sée ‘em. ~ Picking up speed and walking faster and faster, they'd gtart beller- ing for their calves a mile away, and the closer they'd get the more they’d beiler and the faster they’d walk, tiil they'd finally break into a trot, and, tired as they'd be from that long teip, besides packing all the watet thev could hold, they'd manage to leave the “dry stuff” behind and get to ther calves quick as they cowd. The little fellers, hearing their mam mies coming, begin to perk up their ears, then break out on a run to meet ’em, and even though to the human eve they may all look alike, there's no confusion with the cow and her calf about which belongs to which The nursing goes on and all seem plum satisfied with everything in gen eral. The big steer finds himself ai alore, and after watching the pro ceedings for a spell, seeing that all is O. K., trails out his lonesome. headed for the water hole, miles and miles away. So there you be. While that critter had no use for the human and wasn't at all affectionate in any way, not mentioning how contrary and ornery she’d get or how sometimes she'd make you travel to keep out of her horns’ " w there was ns a plenty when you'd find yourself a- cussing at ‘er orneriness and at the same time admiring the wise way that critter did have of being ornery and keeping you a-gues: Apd what's to iy their credit is, § trouble come they’d meet that troubles together and fight it together to a fin- ish. If a lone cow was making ing fight trying to protect her 1l she had to do was let out a call nd there'd be a herd of big steers answering it, and, whatever the en emy was, bears or wolves, they was put on the run and making far-apart tracks. The human is the only enemy they had that would make 'em scatter a keep 'em a-dodging, and they took i out on him in ways that was ornery, sometimes even getting the best of him, to (Copyright. 1925.) Completion of Great Wilson Dam Will Soon Bring Test at Shoals BY WILLIAM 8. ODLIN. OMPLETION of the second| greatest engineering project | ever undertaken by Uncle| Sam is at hand. Some time | this month the current of the Tennessee River will be allowed to surge against the water-wheels of the gigantic turbines in ths powerhouse of the Wilson Dam. In the monster generators above there will leap into being power of a potential intensity unequaled anywhere else on earth. Muscle Shoals will be starting to add its important contribution to the N tion's _energy. The Governmen through the beginning of official tests, will know just what it possesses for an outlay already exceeding $45,000,- 000 for dam and powerhouse alone. Masonry of the lock, dam, power and switch houses has been com- pleted. The main spillway gates on the dam have been installed. The lock gates are under contract. Four main units, each consisting of a 30,000 horsepower water wheel and a 25,000 K. V. A. generator, have been put in place. Installation of four additional units, each consisting of a 35,000 horsepower water wheel and a 33,5600 K. V. A. generator, is under way. The plans call for an ultimate bat- tery of 18 power units. When the total 600,000 horsepower of machinery has been installed and is utllizing the natural_unregulated flow of the Ten- nessee River. these units will produce on the average more than 700,000,000 kilowatt hours of power annually. If used for ordinary commercial pur- poses, this power would effect an an- nual saving of 3,600,000 tons of coal— 600 miies of loaded coal*car Beginning this month the units al- ready completed one by one will be tested under the scrutiny of the de- signers and officers of the Corps of Engineers, United States Army, under which the vast construction covering seven yvears has proceeded. So exhaus- tive will be the tests that it will be months before the last of the origi- nal octet of power units will have passed muster. Electric power will be generated on a huge scale every day the t are in progress. What to do with this power is a problem, surely; for because of the uncertainty as to ultimate dis- position of the plant by Congress, the Government is unable to enter into contracts Wwith prospective power users or lessors. Thus far Congress is much at sea as to the little de- tail of what should be done with this greatest hydraulic development in the world. When it will decide carnot even be guessed, although it authorized the appointment by President Coolidge last March of a’ commission of five to investigate and report to him the most practicable method of utilizing to best advantage the various elements of the Muscle Shoals development. * k% % N the meantime, to avoid utter waste of the vast and valuable power soon to be created, the best the Govern- ment can do is to dispose of it to any ‘one willing to take it under conditions of the utmost uncertainty—by the pall, as it were. Accordingly, Maj. Gen. Harry Taylor, chief of Engineers, has invited the following persons and firms to consider purchase of the pow- er on such a basis: Henry Ford, the Union Carbide Co., New York; the Pensylvania Railroad, the Memphis Power and Light Co.; the Southern Power Co., the Georgla Railway and Power Co., the Electric Bond and Share Ceo., New York: the American Cynamid Co., New York; the Tennes- see Electric Power Co.; the Arkansas Light and Power Co., and the Alabama Power Co. The conditions of sale will include the statement that the Government cannot “‘undertake to supply & stated amount of power for any definite period,” that power will be available only during the tests and tuning up of equipment, and that the test gen- eration of power would be *‘commenced or discontinued whenever the officers in charge of the plant consider it to the best interests of the Governmient to do so.” Gen. Taylor stated that in addition to the firms directly com- municated with, he ‘would be glad to hear from any one else who might be interested.” The only power-user answering that it was in a position to take advantage of the offer is the Ala- bama Power Co. The completion of Wilson Dam, grandly impressive memorial to the war President, marks the end of vears of construction, exceeded in magni- tude only by that vequired by the bullding of the Panama Canal. At times 4,600 men have been employed |58 sloping side of the dam and crashing | acres of ground. To obtain some idea of the stupendousness of this mass of masonry, picture a concrete road 18 feet wide and 6 inches thick, stretch- ing unbroken from New York to Chicago. The top of the dam is a flood gate bridge over which the Dixie Highway also will pass. A lake created by the enormous wall extends 18 miles up- stream and is three-quarters of a mile in width. Excess water power not required for power purposes, and flow- ing over the top of the dam, will be controlled by 58 steel gates, each 38 feet long by 18 feet high. All are operated by a control system which will permit one man to open or close all of the gates in two hours, thus securing the most dependable flood regulation. These gates are designed’ to dis- charge up to 950,000 cubic feet of water per second, three times the dis- charge of the St. Lawrence River in its international section. Throughout flood periods a sheet of water 10 feet thick will be roaring over each of the spillways, sweeping down the into the riverbed below. * . ‘HE power house is 1,250 feet long, 160 feet wide and 134 feet high, and has provision for the 18 main units, two auxiliary units and shore section. Water for each unit is con- ducted from the forebay by three in- takes. As these intakes approach the turbine water wheels they combine into what is called the scroll case This is simply that part of the water passage around the runners of the turbine which guides and distributes the current into the buckets of the runner. As the water passes through the turbine the runner is rotated and power is created. Ultimately the plant will be capable of producing 600,000 horsepower. The tests about to begin will determine whether it now can develop the 260,000 horse- power for which the eight completed units were designed. ‘Work on the Muscle Shoals develop- ment began in July, 1918, as a war measure. Up to that time the United States had been almost entirely de- pendent upon Chile for nitrates, with- out which explosives cannot be made. It became apparent that a flotilla of hostile submarines might cut off that supply with comparative ease. Ac- cordingly, the Government decided to build a plant through which to tap the inexhaustible reservoir of the air and force the relu tant element, nitro- gen, into some combination with other elements from which nitrates could be formed. Muscle Shoals, in the north- western part of Alabama, was se- lected as the site because there were at hand ample sourcessof waterpower, convenient supplies of raw materials in the construction. The dam, the largest on earth, not excepting the great Assoman Dam on the Nile, is one mile long, 137 feet high and 105 feet thick at the base. Its construc- tion required 36,000,000 cubic feet: of less thun 20 | {as soon as hostilities ceased, for it and security from military ence. When the armistice was signed, the nitrate plant, one mile inland from the dam, with a capacity of 150 tons of nitrogen compounds a day and having an emergency steam power plant of 100,000 horsepower, was about completed. Work on the hydraulic power installation, the dam and electric power house, however, was still in the initlal stages, so vast were itg nroportions. In striking contrast to almost all of the other great war-time undertakings, Muscle Shoals did not become useless interfer- possessed, and still possesses, peace- time possibilities of fabulous value. Being a source of two such impor- tant factors in civilization as electric- ity and nitrogen compounds, it is ca- pable of benefiting the American peo- ple in innumerable ways, but for the present special attention is focused on four phases of its usefulness—fer- tilizer, explosives, navigation and power. Fertilizer and explosives, diverse as these products are, have this in com- mon—both consist of- compounds of ritrogen. The preliminary stages in the manufacture of each are the same, and any plant that can make one can be readily adapted for the production of the other. Nitrogenous fertilizer is one of the great needs of the country. Our mat ural supplies, including animal and vegetable refuse and the nitrogenous by-products of coke and gas manufac- ture, are not sufficient to fill the de- mands of American farmers and the deficit must be made up by impor- tations from Chile. Hence, ever since the war there has been widespread de- mand that the Muscle Shoals nitrate plants be devoted to the production of tertilizer. One feature of the proposal made by Heny Ford was that in addi- tion to leasing water power he would purchase the nitrate plant for $5,000,- 000 outright and produce 40,000 tons of fixed nitrogen annually, to be sold to the farmers at cost plus 8 per cent. Others made offers along the same general lines. * ¥ ¥ X THE ultimate disposition of the Wil son Dam power installation and whether it will be operated or disposed | of independently of the nitrate plant | cannot, of course, be foretold at this time. Although disposition of Muscle Shoals now centers around its peace- time uses, the mammoth development still remains essential to the national | defense. War cannot be waged with- | out nitrates, and with Muscle Shoals | ready for operation the United States will be prepared to make nitrates for munitions. Prifarily, of course, electric power s the reason for constructipn of the Wilson Dam, but ether conditions and T | Corps of requirements were taken into consi eration by the designers, Hugh L voper & Co. of New York. The Ter nessee River has always been naviga ble, although little used commer However, protection of its commerc potentialities demanded provision for navigation. The Tennessee is what is known as a flashy stream—that is, one whose discharge varies from a relative trickle of water to a torrent in a short space of time. The discharge has been known to run as low as 7,350 cut feet per second a: in ti of flood as high as 500,000 cubic feet per second T1 e rapid fluct ons demanc adequate provision to cope with enor mous floods. Hence the dam, an ad junct to which is a two-stage lock on the north bank of the river having a 1ift of 93 feet. Thus the 5. ssels of sizable draft is not im peded by the great dam that holds the river in leash Proper disposition in whole or in part attention of Congr days of heated debate. In additio the Ford offer, which for months the vortex of the tornado of dispute, proposals for taking over the power and nitrate plants were made by Assoclated Power Companico, Elon Hooker, and the Union Carbide C while Senator Norris fathered a providing for Government ow: and operation through a controlled by a board of directors pointed by the President and au ized to lease to public and priv: terests power not needed for the duction of fertilizer. Sufficient support could be mu: for none of the proposals, how and months of discussion ended in the creation of the President’s investiga tion commission. This body is posed of Representative John C. Kenzie of 1llinois, Senator Nathanie B. Dial of South Carolina, Harry A Curtis, professor of chemical eng neering at Yale; William n electrical engineer, of New York, and Russell F. Bower of the Farm Bureau Federation This commission will report to Pres ident Coolidge. The President wil make his recommendations to Cor gress. Congre: will debate, decide and instruct the War Department ¢ what it shall do with the mammoth development. In the meantime, the Ingineers, under Gen. Tay lor, who has been in command since the retirement of for r Chief of gineers Maj. Gen. Lansing H. Beach last vear proceeded with putting the finishing touches on the constructior One morning soon Uncle Sam wi find himself possessor of a power and nitrate plant which, with all adjuncts d of Muscle Shoals s occupied the s through many bi! has made him dig down in his jeans to , the tune of $160,000,000. What will he do with it? (Copsright. 1025.) THE LONGEST DAM IN THE WORLD. THE 58 GREAT SPILLWAYS THAT CONTROL THE FLOW OF THE TENNESSEE RIVER WHEN IT ENCOUNTERS THE WILSON DAM AT MUSCLE SHOALS. THI§ MASS OF CONCRETE IS 1 MILE LONG AND 138 FEET HIGH. aig. # ,