202 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



an impression that no such beauty spots could possibly exist 

 because most of them are surrounded by mud walls. When- 

 ever a garden is made there they surround it first by a high 

 wall, sometimes four or five feet high, and sometimes much 

 higher, the wall being constructed of mud. I have gone with 

 my camera many a morning down the little narrow streets of 

 Tripoli to some of the places where they had gardens, and 

 where we had been introduced, and the foliage and blossoms in 

 some of those places were truly remarkable. The pome- 

 granate there is a very beautiful tree, the scarlet bloom of the 

 fig trees is also most agreeable, and the beauty of the date palm 

 trees in that region is remarkable. The date palms, pome- 

 granates and figs, and certain vegetables which they cultivate, 

 and of which the Arabs are very fond, are for the most part 

 to be found in these garden spots surrounded by mud walls. 



If there was time, I wish I might describe to you the ap- 

 pearance of the streets. There are no pavements, in the sense 

 in which we vmderstand them, except on two or three of the 

 streets, and these are composed of very rough cobblestone. 

 Most of the streets are simply unpaved roads, and as you go 

 down you get very dirty. It is therefore a very agreeable 

 contrast to step from one of these streets into one of those 

 delightful garden spots. When you go in there, you find a 

 well very much as it was in the old days of Carthage. There is 

 no change. They raise the water in the same way. There are 

 two masonry pillars, one on either side, with a beam across 

 upon which a rope is wound, and then a cow is used as the 

 motive power to raise the water. The cow is in charge of an 

 Arab boy. As the cow walks up the short incline or hill the 

 water is raised. Then the cow backs down to the bottom, 

 letting down the empty bucket. Then she walks back, and as 

 it comes up full is drawn ofif into a little trough which carries 

 it out into a small canal that leads into a reservoir for the 

 garden. Every gardener has his reservoir, and most all of 

 them have the cow, and the Arab bov to draw the water. Then 

 they have little canals running around the garden in such a 

 way that each square gets its own amount of water. By pur- 

 suing that method of irrigation almost anything can be grown 

 that will grow in that soil and that climate. If they were to 



