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any form of agricultural practice found to be successful in one country should 

 prove almost equally so in the other. The fact, however, that the Regency 

 of Tunis has for extreme southerly limit the great barren Sahara desert, 

 tends to render general climatic conditions more trying to man and growing 

 crops than is perhaps the case with us. 



The Regency admits of being split up into four distinct districts, uneven 

 in size and varying in rainfall, and therefore in agricultural possibilities, 

 viz. : 



1. The extreme northerly district, which may be characterised as very wet, 

 the mean rainfall varying within it from 24in. to 35in. This district con- 

 sists of a narrow tract of country extending between the Port of Bizerta 

 and the inland town of Beja. 



2. The central district, which is described as moist, has a rainfall hovering 

 around 20in. ; in area it represents probably about one-eighth of the Regency. 

 This district may be said to lie between the towns of Tunis and Souk-el- Arba 

 to the north and Maktar to the south. 



3. Farther to the south we have a vast district described as dry, in which 

 the mean rainfall varies between 12in. and 16in. This district lies between 

 the towns of Sousse, Kairouan and Sfax. 



4. Finally, to the extreme south and abutting on the Sahara Desert, we 

 have the very dry district, within which the mean rainfall varies from 4in. 

 to lOin. 



Each one of these four districts has its due quota of mountain country, 

 plains, and coastal areas. 



Like South Australia, Tunisia does not come within the influence of tropical 

 conditions ; hence, from the livestock breeders' point of view, it offers good 

 winter pasture, but is dry and arid over the summer months. The general 

 rainfall distribution is therefore very similar to our own ; the great bulk of 

 the rain falls during the winter months, whilst those of summer, apart from 

 occasional thunderstorms, are to all intents and purposes rainless. I take 

 it, however, that the general advantage of climate is certainly with us ; for 

 whilst our occasional summer north winds are undoubtedly accompanied 

 by very high temperatures very trying to vegetation, their worst effects 

 cannot compare with the intensity of those of the Sirocco, laden with the 

 grit of the barren Sahara wastes. And when in the course of time the wind 

 veers round to the north, it brings with it little relief. The remarkable falls 

 in temperature accompanying winds blowing uninterruptedly over the ocean 

 from the South Pole, so characteristic of our climate, are quite unknown 

 in Tunisia ; for between this land and the cold north lie the summer-heated 

 plains of Southern Europe ; all this contributes towards rendering the burden 

 of the agriculturist proportionately heavier. With this reservation, then, 

 I do not know of climatic conditions more closely approaching our own than 

 those of Tunisia. 



