elsewhere are available there. One can stay in modern hotels or motor lodges, or live in air-conditioned houses. For several years Yuma has had airport service. The airport is now international.

A permanent U.S. Marines base lies nearby and a large military proving ground is about 20 miles to the north where ideas are born and tested. A modern hospital serves the community. The original high school, which had its beginning in the old territorial prison, now houses an interesting museum. An annual rodeo draws large crowds and greyhound dog racing vies with Santa Anita in betting excitement. The huge million dollar Greyhound Clubhouse with its 40 acres of parking space is a showplace. There are shopping centers, of course, and a new $6 million center is in the planning stage.

Outstanding in all the Yuma story are the surrounding farms on both sides of the Colorado. Agriculture still stands first, but it is a big business and not many operators fool around with 40 acres. Land which cost the original settlers $77 an acre, plus the dwelling, now sells for upwards of $1,000 per acre.

Yuma's Production

From this once challenging, useless looking land comes much of the Nation's cotton, alfalfa, citrus fruits, lettuce, carrots, peanuts, melons, sweet corn,

sugar beets, dairy products, and meats. Some crops are grown for seed. Ninety-five percent of the world's production of Bermuda Grass seed is harvested in Yuma County.

Brangus cattle, a cross breed of the Aberdeen Angus and Brahma, got their start in Yuma County. They are beefy and adapt well to the hot climate because they have sweat glands.

This arid expanse needed only man's interest and skill to transform it into an Eden. The population is estimated at 33,950, with a probability of 57,000 by 1970. Those who stay in the summer heat move from air-conditioned cars to air-conditioned dwellings. They might whistle, "Whew! It's hot today," but they aren't suffering any more.

Lest some wonder how Yuma got its name, it must be admitted that nobody knows for sure. There is still a Yuma Indian Reservation and some think the name originated from humo, Indian for smoke. The earliest settlers saw brush fires on the river bank and were told the Indians made medicine and seeded clouds for rain with the smoke. The Indians themselves like to be called Quechan, but their agency on Fort Yuma is listed as the Fort Yuma Sub-Agency. It is confusing.

The rugged souls who created Yuma paid the price. Those who enjoy it now are collecting dividends. # # #

(Appreciation for reprint permission of this article is extended to the author and Desert magazine.)

HE best egg factory is the egg factory that

THE

cliff-that's complete with water and 2,500 happy laying hens.

The idea of a cave as a chicken house with readymade rock insulation for both summer and winter comfort almost has to be new. At least it is different. And it is the result of some resourceful thinking by R. J. Miller of Moab, Utah. Miller's cave

UNDERGROUND EGG

FACTORY

by MEL DAVIS, Head Photographer Region 4

is on his 147-acre ranch reaching along the Colorado River.

The red sandstone cliffs jutting up on this part of his land has the river flowing conveniently through its "front yard." Mr. Miller had studied the unusual site with the thought of excavating to form a large cavern. Such an enclosure would be more economical than constructing foundations, framing and roofing of conventional buildings.

Once Miller thought of using the cave for some type of public use, such as ice skating or dancing, or perhaps a motel. But in spite of many opinions that it wouldn't work, he decided to excavate the 24 x 160-foot room for an egg factory.

Now, after 4 years of operation, he has a successful business. His feathered factory hands produce an average of 2,100 eggs a day.

The blasting and excavating job was awarded to a rock miner who had equipment he wanted to keep busy. For two reasons, the work was started part way up the face of the cliff: To shorten the distance of drilling a vertical ventilating shaft; also the rock taken out could be dropped outside as fill to form an entrance.

In addition to taking care of what she is shown doing here, Marlene Bailey, also operates a modern appartus for inspecting the eggs.

Miller then went about doing his best to make the project commercially worthwhile. His white leghorn hens are purchased from a Colorado firm and put into production when 5 months old. They stay in rows of wire cages several feet off the floor. These individual compartments are just large enough to allow each hen to concentrate on the work she does best-eating, drinking, and laying eggs. After the eggs drop onto a slanting wire net under the cages they roll to the front where they are easily gathered.

A watering trough extending along one side of the cages is kept at constant level automatically. Feed is placed twice each day in a trough on the other side of the pens.

Lights tell the hens when to "go to work." Automatically the lights go on at 5:30 each morning and off at 6:30 in the evening. Little, if any egg laying is done in the dark. Plans are to increase the "daylight" by 15 minutes each week until the lights are on 20 hours a day for maximum egg production.

After about 14 months, the entire lot is retired and either sold cheaply to individual buyers or to a commerical plant where they are processed for public consumption.

Mr. Miller points out that one of the big advantages of his "cave coup" is the ease of maintaining constant temperature. This varies only from a low of about 50 degrees in winter to 80 degrees in summer. The heat sources are from the lights overhead and from the hens themselves. Ventilating fans are temperature-controlled and draw fresh air through the shaft extending from the top of the rock roof.

Fertilizer System

Another benefit from the egg factory is fertilizer. Water flushes the droppings along troughs between the walkways taking it into a central pipe. This pipe empties into a large tank outside where chemicals are added to keep the solution as a liquid and to prevent the settling of solids. Because the tank is higher than the surrounding area, the solution is turned onto the fields by gravity through the regular irrigation ditches. This system assists in growing alfalfa and pasture grasses for raising cattle and sheep.

Most of the egg-producing operation is handled by a member of the family, Mrs. Ivan Bailey. She washes and candles the eggs, puts them into cartons, then delivers them to another of Mr. Miller's businesses, a supermarket in downtown Moab. When Miller is not attending to matters of the Grand County Commission, of which he is chairman, or working the ranch, or tending to matters at his supermarket, he helps with the work at his egg factory. Another man helps part time with the feeding, egg gathering, and cleaning out the laying

room.

There are other advantages for the resident of this area of Utah. In his spare time, Miller can jeep into the surrounding hills and canyons in search of old Indian ruins. He can take a boat trip on the scenic Colorado River or Lake Powell behind Glen Canyon Dam, Ariz. Or he can visit the newest of the national parks, the colorful Canyonlands nearby.

As for the hens, they seem content to lay eggs and cluck noisily to each other. Possibly they feel a little superior to hens which do not work in an air-conditioned, underground egg factory.

# # #

Left. This sewage treatment plant near Amarillo reclaims raw sewage water by chemical treatments prior to its sale to two industrial plants.

An important consideration for any city contemplating this kind of operation is the initial financial outlay which, in this case, amounted to approximately $3 million for the two plants. With a staff of 26, these plants have an annual operation and maintenance cost of $270,000. The figures might seem quite prohibitive to many communities, for 95 percent of all the towns and cities in the United States receive no revenue from their sewage treatment facilities and therefore their annual operating budgets are complete financial liabilities to the taxpayers.

Amarillo, however, receives approximately $160,000 annually from the sale of its three products. Sale of industrial water is estimated at $134,000 annually, while irrigation water sales amount to about $4,000. Fertilizer is sold retail for $3 per cubic yard at the plant loaded on the customer's truck or trailer and realizes approximately $2,000 per year. The city gets about $20,000 in power savings from the use of sludge gas in the two 175horsepower engines furnishing process air and for heating.

Better Looking Plants

The new sewage treatment plants and the old style ones are as dissimilar in looks as they are in processes. The Amarillo plants boast of beautiful lawns, flower beds, and attractive buildings, which belie the nature of their work.

But the new look also is carried through to the actual work performed. Men in clean overalls, well versed in laboratory work, handle the unique treatment process.

As raw sewage enters the treatment plant, large objects, sand, and grit are screened out. Items such as grapefruit rinds, old shoes, and rags also are removed. The screening equipment once even produced a shovel. Following the removal of larger objects, the sewage is transported into a large tank where other solid matter is settled out and pumped to a closed tank.

At this stage the "bugs"-or minute animal life are pressed into service. These "bugs" consist of two types of bacteria: One called anaerobic, which thrives on lack of air in a temperature of 92 degrees; and the other, aerobic, requires a certain

amount of air. These microscopic organisms demand living conditions that are constant or they will die. If a "rocking of the boat" should occur, throwing the conditions out of balance and resulting in the death of the aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, other organisms would take over and the process would be halted.

The anaerobic "bugs" are fed the solid pollutional material in tanks, covered to exclude air, to collect the gases produced, and heated within a range to 1° to 2° to control bacterial activity. Here, temperature is kept at 92° with heat from a burning gas which is produced in the process. Under these conditions the raw sewage solids start the anaerobic cells growing. This continues as long as they have food or until they become 2 to 4 hours old and die. Dead cells are then transformed into a dark liquid and pumped into drying beds which become dried digested sludge or fertilizer.

Liquid Is Mixed

From the tank where the smaller solids were settled out, the remaining liquid is pumped out, mixed with aerobic cells and moved into a large tank where the proper amount of air is added to the mixture. In these large open tanks the bacteria digest the remaining organic matter in the solution leaving almost pure water, except for the bacteria. By this time the bugs have grown enormously and more cells have been produced for the continuing process with enough left over for the bacteria down in the other tank to feed on. The well-fed bacteria are separated from the cleaned up water, and some are disposed of while others are reinjected into more sewage for feeding.

A lack of food, too much air, a toxic metal, or certain chemicals in the sewage can cause the death of the cultures, or working bacteria, which in turn, would stop the whole process. Such a stoppage is guarded against because it could result in a shutdown in water production of 24 hours or longer.

As a preventive measure, the Amarillo Water Reclamation and Sewage Treatment Plant purchased and equipped a mobile laboratory in a clean white panel truck. An industrial wastes technician patrols the sewer system in this mobile laboratory testing and checking. At the first sign of a waste that might be harmful to the bugs at the plant, he radios the plant operator to be on the lookout, then traces the poison back to the offending industry where he arranges to have the damaging flow stopped.