Photo by the American Colony at Jerusalem 



THRESHING-FLOOR SCENE IN THE FIELDS OF BOAZ, NEAR BETHLEHEM 



The trampled grain is tossed into the air; the fine straw separates into a neat pile by itself, 

 while the dust and very fine particles are completely blown away 



now to be found. Many a devastating 

 war and the misgovernment of 14 cen- 

 turies have done their fatal work. 



PALESTINE SUMMED UP 



If Palestine is not a land of natural 

 wealth nor a land of natural beauty, what 

 is it? What are the impressions' which 

 the traveler who tries to see it exactly as 

 it is carries away with him? Roughly 

 summed up, they are these : stones, caves, 



tombs, ruins, battle-fields, sites hallowed 

 by traditions — all bathed in an atmos- 

 phere of legend and marvel. 



Never was there a country, not being 

 an absolute desert, so stony. The hill- 

 sides seem one mass of loose rocks, 

 larger or smaller. The olive yards and 

 vineyards are full of stones. Even the 

 cornfields (except in the alluvial soil of 

 the plain of Esdraelon and along the 

 sandy coast) seem to have more pebbles 



29S 



