that these may be produced upon a commercial scale. If so, we shall have something new in American horticulture.

But the great agricultural staples will be the chief products of the delta. These are grain, alfalfa and live stock. This will be a famous feeding ground for herds of cattle driven from the ranges in Arizona, the Coast Mountains on the West, and over the line from Mexico. Because of the great yields of alfalfa-eight crops a year with a total yield of ten tons per acre-cattle may be fattened more cheaply here than anywhere else in the country. There are large and profitable markets within shipping distance. Probably the alfalfa and cattle industry will be the largest single source of wealth in the new settlement. Grain will also be produced upon a grand scale and with record-breaking yields, as a result of irrigation.

The Mexican lands have been bought of private owners; those in the United States have been taken by settlers under our land

CHILDREN OF THE DESERT

church, post office and local newspaper. On the boundary of the two Republics is "Cameron," close to the lake of the same name. East of Salton River, on the portion of the delta nearest the railroad, "Sunset Springs" serves as a centre for settlers and canal-builders. The railroad station is "Flowing Well"-without the well!

Doubtless some large towns and many small villages will grow up here. Phoenix, an Arizona city of 15,000 or more, is sustained by an irrigated area less than that now under completed canals in the Colorado delta, and less than one-tenth of that subject to ultimate reclamation.

Soil and water make only a part of the economic foundation of the region. Around the borders of the desert, mountains and foothills are full of minerals. Oil prospecting is going forward at a lively rate. Thousands of acres have been located for this purpose. At "Salton," in one of the lowest depressions of the ancient sea, salt is found in vast quantities and is shoveled from the ground directly into the freight car. In the near mountains are varieties of building-stone, including a fair quality of marble. Millions of acres of grazing lands are tributary.

SAN DIEGO'S OPPORTUNITY

To the city and seaport of San Diego these new developments are big with opportunity. The delta region lies directly in the rear, separated only by a barrier of low mountains. Favored with the only natural harbor on the southern coastline, San Diego could not grow to be a large city until two things should happen. First, its "back country must be opened to settlement; second, there must be a direct eastern railroad outlet to some through connection. This would make the true short line to the Orient. The first of these desirable events has happened in the reclamation of the delta. The railroad situation the San Diegans and their new fellowcitizens at the eastern end of the county have bravely undertaken to solve.

A

SECOND conquest of ancient Peru has begun, a conquest by steel, but it is the steel of rails and cars, not of swords. Instead of Spaniards climbing from Guayaquil to Quito to loot a rich land, it is a railroad that by the energy of an American engineer is now climbing through the defiles of the Andes, from the alluvial fertility of the coast up into the wealth of the high plateau beyond the Cordilleras. Steel rails will pry open the doors of a land of gold and grain, and bring prosperity to a drowsy people. The opening of Ecuador by

a railroad is an event of importance in the extension of civilization.

Ecuador was the northern province of the ancient Inca empire of Peru. The caravels of Pizarro found their first haven at an island. off the coast of Ecuador, and Quito was one of the great cities the Spaniards sacked. The useless ransom the Inca so easily produced amounted it is thought to nearly $15,000,000 in gold and $3,000,000 in silver. This was a trifling surplus of the wealth of the country which the Guayaquil and Quito railroad is now opening. The Spaniards saw everywhere

FROM THE INCA ROAD Looking toward Mt. Chimborazo

great herds and flocks. They raided the land, staggered away with a booty such as no other country had then furnished invaders, set the yoke of their religion upon it, and, gradually Ecuador fell asleep again. The very geography of the land is not yet accurately known. The eastern part of the republic is yet unmapped. Its people have never been numbered. No country on the earth has a more varied surface. No land has so many climates, the changes in altitude having the effect of

changes in latitude. Tropical plains, snowclad mountains, fertile plateaus, vast rubber forests, unmapped rivers, flowing into the vague headwaters of the Amazon-these make the Ecuador that will be thrown open within two years by the completion of the Guayaquil and Quito Railroad.

The story of the building of this railroad began in 1896, when Gen. Eloy Alfaro attained power. He had fought a score of revolutions. He had faced death many times. He had lived years in exile, both in the United States and in Mexico, learning the principles of good government which he is now putting in force. He has proved himself one of the strongest characters who ever ruled in South America. He refused a permanent dictatorship and had himself constitutionally elected president. Serving his four years, he now quietly retires, but his successor, Gen. Plaza Guiterrez, is one of Alfaro's own men. When the people of Ecuador called Alfaro to power in 1896 he found two great tasks before him. The first of these tasks was to free Ecuador from religious domination. Much