A PATEIARCH 39 



Cotton, wheat and barley, alfalfa and fruit, are the chief products in 

 the order named. 



The next largest stream in Turkestan is the Sir Daria which is, in 

 general, about half the size of the Amou Daria and has a minimum flow of 

 more than 15,000 cubic feet per second. The Sir Daria and the Amou Daria 

 are the only streams in Turkestan which reach the Aral Sea, the rest being 

 lost in the desert or consumed in irrigation. 



A large number of small canals have been diverted from the Sir Daria 

 in Ferghana, Samarkand and Sir Daria Provinces. These are used for 

 irrigating temperate zone crops, including grains and forage plants, some 

 fruit trees, a large amount of cotton. A large canal taking water from this 

 river was built as a private enterprise by the Russian Emperor, Nicholas 

 I, which, taking advantage of a series of islands, diverted about 300 cubic 

 feet of water per second into a canal with a length of about 28 miles on the 

 river bottom, and an equal distance over the desert on the bench to the west 

 of the river, all in the province of Samarkand. This system, however, was 

 built on too flat a grade. Its diversion point is unfavorable and unreliable, 

 and the entire canal is located on low ground in such way that it is difiicult 

 to carry the water to the fields to be irrigated. The ill success of this 

 system has led to an enterprise on the part of the Russian Government to 

 supersede the existing canal system by means of another heading further 

 up the river and built on a heavier grade, which will command the same 

 lands and a little more. This canal is now under construction and the main 

 canals of the old system will be in the final plans used for drainage. 



It appears to be feasible to divert the Sir Daria into a very large canal 

 near the town of Khojend on the left bank and carry the same in a course 

 practically westward to irrigate the vast plain known as the Golodnaya 

 Steppe, where nearly a million acres of very fine land can be found, which is 

 smooth, has an excellent soil, and slope favorable for irrigation. It is 

 probable that the water supply is not sufficient to irrigate this entire tract, 

 but this must depend upon complete adjudication of prior claims to the waters 

 of the Sir Daria. 



A PATRIARCH 



By THOMAS NELSON PAGE. 



OR. HUNTER McGUIRE once related to the writer that having performed 

 an operation on the eyes of a boy, who had been born blind, and given 

 him sight, he asked the lad what was the most beautiful tiling in the 

 world, and he answered instantly, "A tree." 



This verdict will be endorsed by all except those who have not received 

 their sight. And in their memory will generally stand forth prominent some 

 one tree which excels all others of its kind. It may be some hoary cypress 

 like those of Santa Cruz, bearing on its scarred trunk the marks of centuries; 

 it may be a New England elm, lifting its head to the sunlight in perfect 

 symmetry; it may be a live oak spreading afar its branches to the ground 

 as though to seek with its leaves the moisture about its far-sent roots. Or 

 it may be some mighty oak, towering above its fellows in stupendous majesty. 



