g6 The Great World's Farm 



taken place in the region round about the Suez Canal. 

 Here there was formerly hardly a blade of grass to be 

 seen, and the land was a desert. But the cutting of the 

 canal has brought water into the midst of the parched 

 land; this soaks through the sandy soil, and everywhere 

 herbage is springing up along the banks. Rain is still 

 rare, but the air is moister; for the blazing sun draws up 

 from the canal large volumes of water, which, though it 

 is only invisible vapor by day, is chilled and condensed 

 into water again by the lower temperature of the night, 

 and falls upon the thirsty land as a heavy, refreshing dew. 



But the very fact that it is a sandy district is in its 

 favor in one way, for water soaks easily through it, and 

 is thus brought to the roots of all plants growing within 

 reach. 



Then, again, in the Delta of Egypt there is much more 

 cultivation than there was some years back. There are 

 more corn-fields, more pastures, and even little forests are 

 springing up, so that its general aspect is quite altered, 

 and this change is accompanied by a change for the better 

 in the climate also. Alexandria has rain, even to excess; 

 and Cairo, which used to have at most five or six light 

 showers a year, now has three or four times as much. 

 The increase in the rainfall seems to be distinctly trace- 

 able to the increase in the amount of vegetation. 



So impressed are the Americans of the West with the 

 connection between want of trees and want of rain,, that 

 they now set apart a day in each year, which they call 

 "Arbor Day," and dedicate to the planting of trees. 

 Before this idea was started there had been such reckless 

 cutting of wood in the mountains and timber regions as 

 to cause quite a dearth even of fire-wood, especially in 



