10 



AGRICU'LTURE IN THE SAHAEA DESERT. 



A^^io would suspect that amid these mountains of bare sand, where 

 even the hardy shrubs and grasses of the desert find no foothold," 

 men can live by the products of the soil ? Yet in the very heart of the 

 Erg, two long days' ride east or west from the nearest habitations, 

 there exists one of the most highly developed agricultural communi- 

 ties in the Avorld. This is in the countr}^ known as the Oued Souf, 

 situated in extreme southeastern Algeria (see fig. 1), about midway 

 lietween the oases of southwestern Tunis and the Algerian oases 

 known as the Oued Rirh, in which latter the date palm is grown by 



Fig. 1. — Map showing location of the Oued Souf with respect to other localities in Algeria 



and Tunis. 



Europeans upon a commercial scale.'' From El Oued, the capital of 

 tlie Souf, it is about 70 miles southwest to Tougourt, the chief toAvn 

 of the Oued Eirh, and about the same distance northeast of El Oued 

 is Nefta, the nearest oasis in Tunis. The elevation of El Oued is 

 about 257 feet above sea level. 



o Only eight species of flowering plants were found growing wild in the Souf 

 region by Massart. See " Un voyage hotanicpie au Sahara," p. 24!) (18!)8). 

 f> See Plate II (map) in Bui. 53, Bureau of Plant Industry, " The Date Palm," 



by W. T. 



Swingle. 



