220 WORLD-POWER AND EVOLUTION 



tough grasses. We saw traces of earlier gardens all of which had 

 met the same fate. Nature had been too much for the Kurds just 

 as it had been for the Arabs in the desert and the Turks and others 

 around Constantinople. 



Down in Beersheba, the most southerly town of Palestine, I saw 

 a young Syrian official defeated by nature in the same way. He 

 and two partners had attempted to raise grain on a large scale. 

 Seeing many square miles of good land lying unused, they leased 

 from the government a large tract at a rental of about $2,000 per 

 year. In 1908 they planted several acres and reaped an excellent 

 crop. The next year they increased the area, hiring many labor- 

 ers, and investing all the money that they could lay hands on. The 

 spring of 1909 was unpropitious with no rain from February till 

 the end of April. At the end of April, when the fields should have 

 been at their best, those at Beersheba looked almost as if they had 

 never been planted. There was no crop to reap, and camels were 

 turned in to browse on the scanty stalks of grainless wheat and 

 barley. Each man lost $1,500 or more, which is as much as 

 $10,000 would be for an American official. 



The untilled plateau of Constantinople, the stunted Kurdish 

 gardens, and the withered grain at Beersheba represent the con- 

 stant experience of the Turkish Empire. Men fail to im- 

 prove their condition because natural obstacles are insurmount- 

 able. In view of the repeated failures of the past the number of 

 attempts at improvements is highly commendable. It shows that 

 in spite of much inertia and stupidity many of the people of the 

 Turkish Empire are blessed with quick, active minds and a good 

 deal of persistence. But no one can be blamed if nature refuses 

 to cooperate with him. In ancient days, when the climate of the 

 Turkish Empire was favorable, the ancestors of some of the 

 present inhabitants were the leaders of civilization. Today their 

 descendants are crushed and discouraged by the insurmountable 

 obstacles of nature. No wonder their spirit is broken, their chil- 



