ANIMALS AND ARID CONDITIONS 381 
The following can be used as illustrative examples. I have seen 
a vigorous and well-fed young male camel butchered because it 
was too vicious to be handled. It brought the owner a price of 
nearly 50,000 francs. I have also seen a very old scraggly female 
camel being brought to butchery by its owner because unex- 
pectedly it became pregnant and was not expected to survive it. 
It brought 18,000 francs, probably half of what it could have 
brought a few years earlier. 
It would also be important to investigate the effect of castra- 
tion of the males on the final yield of meat and fat, and whether 
castration should be done in the very young animal or, for ex- 
ample, a year before butchering. 
Where low grade pasture cannot be readily improved, it can 
be utilized to advantage along the principles outlined above only 
in connection with nomadic or semi-nomadic life. The availability 
of cheap labor for herding is a requisite condition for this type 
of production. 
It has often been said that modern means of transport, in par- 
ticular the automobile, are rapidly making the camel superfluous. 
This is true for long distance transport, where now even the 
Sahara is crossed by a network of roads with rather regular bus and 
truck traffic. On a smaller scale the camel still maintains great im- 
portance in transport, but its use may in the future yield more to 
the truck. However, in meat production on vast areas of low 
grade arid lands the camel may maintain its role. In production 
of meat the truck can never complete. 
The truck may, however, depose the camel in this field, too, 
in an indirect way. As a representative of the mechanized culture 
the truck represents higher wages, fostering settlement and aban- 
donment of primitive nomadic life. The situation is not unlike 
the migration of the rural population to the big cities in so many 
Western countries. 
Many oases, at least in the Sahara, depend on the nomads for 
meat production. Areas inaccessible to the settled populations can 
be used for production by the nomads. Settlement leads to over- 
grazing of the area immediately surrounding the settlement, unless 
means and resources are available for adequate irrigation. One of 
the great dangers in planning the future of arid lands is the belief 
