194 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [J?'"., 



the last five years that few people were at all familiar with this 

 country or its people. Of course, as you know, geographically, 

 Tripoli is one of the countries upon the northern coast of 

 Africa. Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and Egypt occupy 

 the entire northern coast of Africa, but Tripoli is better known 

 perhaps among all of these as a Turkish province. The 

 country, however, is practically independent. The bulk of 

 the population is made up of Arabs and Moors, and from that 

 very fact you can imagine that it is a very curious place. A 

 very small per cent, of the people speak English, not many 

 more of them speak French, and a great majority of the rest 

 speak Arabic. There are a few who speak Italian, and others 

 who speak a mixture of several of the dead languages of south- 

 ern Europe. So you can see what a mixed population it has. 

 From our previous experiences of 1900, it was a delightful 

 surprise when we found that we vcere to repeat our trip of 

 five years previous. 



I feel a little more as if I belonged before this audience 

 tonight than I ever did on any of the former occasions when 

 I have had the pleasure of speaking before you. When speak- 

 ing to you before I could not in any true sense be called an 

 agriculturist, but since then I, too, have become a farmer. 

 I have purchased a place at Buzzard's Bay, which is chiefly 

 entitled to notice on account of its trees. I, always, as some 

 of you may remember, have taken an interest in the preserva- 

 tion of trees, and this place in particular is a very delightful 

 one to me on that account. There are fifty acres of trees. I 

 practically saved those trees from destruction. I have tried 

 to practice a little forestry among them. I have bought some 

 oaks and some beeches, and so I feel that now I can come 

 before you as an agriculturist, and with a little more reason 

 on that account speak to a special audience like this. 



My subject, however, is the antipodes of forestry, and how- 

 ever enthusiastic I may be on the subject of forestry in general, 

 and the preservation of noble, artistic looking trees in particu- 

 lar, I shall try to confine my attention to Tripoli and its people. 

 Tripoli lies on a great bay of the Tripolitan coast which 

 commences just after you pass the extreme northern point of 

 the great African peninsula which stretches out into the 



