ECONOMIC PLANTS WORTHY OF INTRODUCTION. 31 



every year some hundreds of acres are sown in this locality where 

 five to seven years previously its cultivation was considered im- 

 possible. 



The chick-pea will, I think, do well in the dry-farming regions 

 of the United States, and if its cultivation is properly developed it 

 should become a more important crop than the Lima bean. 



Sesame. — The sesames of Palestine are of most excellent quality. 

 In the markets of Marseille and of Germany they pay a special price 

 for the Haifa sesame. This is preferred to the sesame of Jaffa or 

 the Ghor (the Arab name for the valley of the Jordan), for at Haifa, 

 as Ave shall see, a local race has been developed under quite different 

 conditions. 



The soil must be well prepared for sesame. For the best results 

 it should be pulverized until " as fine as ashes." Sesame is generally 

 sown about the time of the barley harvest — that is, about the end of 

 April or the beginning of May, after the rains have stopped — for the 

 Arabs have noticed that sesame germinates very irregularly if rain 

 follows immediately after the sowing. They explain that this is 

 because the oil in wet seed becomes rancid and therefore prevents 

 germination. Although they have observed the fact correctly they 

 have assigned a wrong interpretation. The real reason is that as 

 after a rain a crust forms over the pulverized soil, the feeble sesame 

 plants are not strong enough to break through it, so that the stand 

 is irregular and too sparse. The Arab, who knows nothing about 

 harrowing, does not know how to break up this crust. By harrow- 

 ins we were able to sow sesame earlier and thus to have the benefit 

 of the last rains. However, although the Arab tries to sow his 

 sesame only after the rains, it grows as it gets sufficient moisture from 

 water stored up in the soil. 



South of Jaffa, where the rainfall is not more than 14 to 16 inches, 

 the sesame is grown upon sandy clayey soils. At Haifa the rainfall 

 averages more than 24 inches and sesame is grown on rich ground of 

 volcanic origin, so that a very different race and one of a much 

 better quality is developed there. In the valley of the Jordan the 

 situation is still different. There, after barley or wheat has been 

 harvested and the ground copiously irrigated, the sesame is sown on 

 well-prepared soil. It grows without any further irrigation, under a 

 torrid sun and in an alkaline soil, but here the reserve of water stored 

 up in the soil is greater than at Jaffa or Haifa. We see, then, that 

 under different conditions local races adapted to such conditions are 

 developed, and this indicates to us how much care and study is neces- 

 sary when we introduce new plants into strange surroundings. 



I do not believe that under present labor conditions sesame can be 

 profitably cultivated in the United States, because the plants of the 

 crop do not all mature at the same time. This makes necessary 



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