364 MOKOcco. 



animal — a camel, horse, or mule — is employed all day long in pump- 

 ing water to the surface through a large conduit. Not infrequently 

 women are to be seen harnessed at the work. Here w4nd motors 

 would be entirely suitable and they would never lack motive power. 



The fact that these districts along the coast at present maintain a 

 fixed pojiulation and are habitable to a high degree is the result of 

 cultivation, of long, toilsome labor on the part of man. It is also 

 the result of the remarkable fertility of the soil, which likewise 

 accoqnts for the form of the plain. This lower plain land of the 

 Atlas Vorland possesses a covering of black soil, or Tirs, as it is 

 there called, which is spread over a large extent of territory. In 

 1899 I was in a position merely to indicate its existence, but in 1901 

 1 could carry my investigations farther and verify my previous 

 observations. I submitted specimens of the soil, obtained on both 

 trips, to most competent specialists for chemical and mineralogical 

 analysis ; and those analyses not only declared the soil to be unusually 

 fertile, but they also confirmed my theory as to its origin, which is that 

 it consists essentially of dust deposits from the interior. The black 

 soil is for the most part of slight depth and is spread unevenly ; the 

 broadest areas covered by it unl)rokenly ])robably occur in Abda. 

 Nevertheless, Dukkala is generally considered the most fertile of the 

 coast provinces. I myself observed black soil in the upper plain lands 

 of Shawia, but near the edge, and in the region of the upper Wed 

 Rdem in El Gliarb, and through inquiries I established the fact that 

 of its presence in Tedla, the most inland valley of the Atlas Vorland, 

 the Moroccan Ferghana, as I might call it. 



This belt of black soil is therefore principally characteristic* of 

 the coast plain, where the dust carried down from the inland plains 

 is retained because of a more abundant rainfall in winter, a more 

 luxuriant vegetation, and the flatness of the land, which precludes 

 washing away by swift-running streams. Consequently black soil 

 is entirely lacking along the Um-er-Rbia and in the strips of land 

 along the coast that are cut up by rivers. The remarkable capacity of 

 this soil for Avater, which has been demonstrated by analysis, enables 

 it to retain the winter moisture, and this moisture is sup]:)lemented 

 to a certain degree by the abundant fall of dew pecidiar to this 

 coast region. Good residts are thus obtained, both from a winter 

 soAving and a spring sowing of maize or other grain. The peasants 

 think that rain is even harmful to maize, for it seems to thrive on 

 the natural moisture of the ground in winter and w^ith the dew. 

 About the first of April, when th(^ winter rains are over, a variety 

 is sowed that reqiures only three months for attaining its maturity, 

 and may therefore be harvested at the end of June. 



The loAver plain land of the Atlas Vorland is thus the granary of 

 Morocco, and the provinces included in it, Abda. Dukkala, Shawia, 



