248 



THE IBRIQATION AGE. 



line and should be made clean-cut and straight. Any 

 curve made at the surface will ordinarily be greater 

 when the bottom is reached. If a survey has been made, 

 a line should be drawn about five inches to one side of 

 and parallel with the line of grade stakes. It is as- 

 sumed that these stakes have been set on a true line 

 fifty or one hundred feet apart and that the depth of 

 the cuts from the top of each grade stake to the grade 

 line of the ditch has been furnished to the workman or 

 marked upon the guide stakes which denote the position 

 of the grade stakes. 



The digging tools which are necessary in easily 

 worked soils are as follows : A ditching spade with 

 blade eighteen or twenty inches long, a round-pointed 

 shovel with long handle, and a grading scoop of the 

 "pull" pattern (Fig. 11). In light, mucky soils a muck 

 spade, which is a three-tined fork with a steel cutting 

 edge like a spade, can be used with profit. Where the 

 clay is hard or stony a pick and iron bar will be neces- 

 sary. Straight ditches and neat work should be insisted 

 upon, since the labor required is no greater than in 

 digging crooked and ragged ones, and a drain in a neat 

 line is more efficient than one which has short irregular 

 crooks. Where it is necessary to change the direction 

 of the line it should be done by an easy curve. When 

 a lateral drain joins another it should form an angle of 

 about 30 with it. 



( To be Continued) 



is not protected or secured by the bond company, is put 

 on the market at twenty-five cents per share, while that 

 which is backed by the security bond is sold for fifty 

 cents per share, the purchase of either being optional 

 with the individual interested, as the stock is the same 

 and the twenty-five cent stock will earn equally as much 



CHANCE FOR INVESTMENT. 



In this issue will be found an advertisement of 

 the Northwestern Consolidated Oil Company, whoso 

 main field of operations at present is at Belton, Mo. 

 This company has been organized for two years and 

 owns and operates a territory covering a total of 1.300 

 acres in three oil fields. At Belton. Mo., twenty-four 

 miles from Kansas City, this company has one excel- 

 lent well producing a high grade of lubricating oil. 

 The pumping plant, tanks, all necessary buildings and 

 good machinery are all paid for. 



This oil can be developed into various by-products 

 and the company contemplates the erection of a refin- 

 ery to handle the oil and place it on the market. Ow- 

 ing to the fact that so many illuminating oil proposi- 

 tions are before the public at the present time, it is 

 well to consider the circumstance that this oil is a 

 high grade lubricant, which commands a much larger 

 price and consequently a much larger profit than may 

 be obtained from illuminating oils. In a conversation 

 recently with Mr. Nelson J. Eussell, who is the head of 

 the company, he informed us that he has invested some- 

 thing like $21,000 of his own money in this plant and 

 is exceedingly hopeful of its future. He stated that 

 $10,000 additional capital is now needed for the further 

 development of the property and is satisfied that after 

 the expenditure of this money the company can pay 

 dividends of at least 8 per cent on capital stock as soon 

 as the plant is in good working order. At the present 

 selling price of the stock, the par value being $1.00. 

 and the selling price fifty cents, the earning capacity 

 of the stock would be 16 per cent, and this income is 

 guaranteed on the fifty-cent stock by the issuance of 

 bonds to each purchaser to cover his investment. These 

 bonds are underwritten by a well-known security com- 

 pany and the security back of the bonds is composed 

 of railway and high grade municipal bonds. The stock 

 issued and sold without this guarantee (and remember, 

 only a limited amount of the stock will be sold) which 



FLOW OF OIL FROM BELTON WELL. 



as that secured by the bond after the property is fully 

 developed. 



One strong feature about this investment is that 

 the wells are located within hauling distance by wagons 

 of Kansas City, thereby precluding the possibilities of 

 freight or railway interference, as sometimes occurs 

 with other corporations out of the control of the heavier 

 corporations. The company only desires to raise $10,- 

 000 to complete the work already well started and when 

 this sum is raised no more stock will be offered, as 

 those in control are fully satisfied that that amount will 

 place the business .on a good paying basis. Up to the 

 present time the Northwestern Consolidated Oil Com- 

 pany has been a close corporation. All the money ex- 

 pended so far has been by the organizers, which in 

 itself shows their good faith and that it was not organ- 

 ized as a stock selling proposition. If our readers will 

 look into this we are satisfied that they will find the 

 investment fully warrants their consideration. 



In connection herewith is a half-tone photo show- 

 ing flow of oil from the well now in operation. Please 

 bear in mind this is a lubricating oil. The photograph 

 shown in the advertisement, which appears on another 

 page, is of the well at Belton at the time it was shot. 



