6 The Great World's Farm 



What it might be, and how easily it might be made to 

 "blossom like the rose," we can to some extent guess, 

 when we find that the passing showers, which are all that 

 visit the deserts of Egypt, are sufficient, scanty as they 

 are, to awaken "the green things on the yellow surface"; 

 though we may well wonder how the seeds "could germi- 

 nate after months of exposure to the burning sun." 



And then, again, while it is quite certain that such 

 vegetation as exists in these regions is grown entirely by 

 the natural laborers, there seems also good reason to sup- 

 pose that man actually does much to hinder their work. 



If, for instance, man and his domestic animals were 

 banished from the Arabian and African deserts, it is 

 believed by Mr. Marsh that many parts of them would 

 soon be covered with forests, and with forests would come 

 rain, to the enormous benefit of the whole region. 

 Acacias of several species are constantly being sown, and 

 they sprout up plentifully around the springs and winter 

 watercourses, while grasses and shrubs grow up under 

 their sheltering shade. But these latter are mown down 

 as fast as they grow by the hungry cattle of the Arabs; 

 and even the trees do not escape, for the goat devours the 

 seedlings whenever it has the opportunity, and the camel 

 will bite through thorny branches as thick as the finger, 

 and unfortunately it has a particular liking for the twigs, 

 leaves, and seed-pods of the acacia; so that between 

 them, the tree of the desert has but little chance. If only 

 they were left undisturbed for a few years these spots 

 would be covered with groves, which would gradually 

 extend where now little can grow but the foxglove and 

 colocynth. 



Still, even now, these deserts cannot be called bare. 



