364 MOROCCO. 



animal — a camel, horse, or mule — is emploj^ed all day long in pump- 

 ing water to the surface through a large conduit. Not infre(|uently 

 women are to be seen harnessed at the w^ork. Here wind motors 

 would be entirely suitable and the}' would never lack motive power. 



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

 fixed population 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 fertilitj'^ of the soil, which likewise 

 accounts 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 nw previous 

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

 trips, to most competent sjiecialists 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 unbrokenly j^robably occur in Abda. 

 Nevertheless, Dukkala is generally considered the most fertile of the 

 coast i^rovinces. I myself obser\'ed black soil in the upper plain lands 

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

 Rdem in El Gharb, 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 ])rincipally characteristic of 

 the coast plain, wdiere 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 cai:)acity of 

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

 it to retain the winter moisture, and this moisture is supplemented 

 to a certain degree by the abunchmt fall of dew peculiar to this 

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

 sowing and a spring sowing of maize or other grain. The j)easan(s 

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

 tlie natural moisture of the ground in Avinter and with the dew. 

 About the first of April, when the winter rains aie over, a variety 

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

 and may therefore b«> harvested at the end of June. 



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

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



