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The National Geographic Magazine 



find immediately to make it pay, is diffi- 

 cult to discover, but to one familiar with 

 the way in which our great West has 

 been peopled, and the progress which is 

 being made in matters of irrigation all 

 over the world, the scheme of settling 

 such portions of the Tigris Valley as 

 can be irrigated does not seem a chimeri- 

 cal one. Under the present rule, how- 

 ever, it would be difficult to develop the 

 country, as the hindrances to transpor- 

 tation, the methods of taxation, and the 

 hundred and one difficulties of adminis- 

 tration which characterize Turkish rule 

 would be discouraging in the extreme, 

 to any American capitalist at least. 



So far as climate is concerned, how- 

 ever, the region appears to be as inhabit- 

 able as many portions of Arizona and 

 California, the winters being delight- 

 fully pleasant and the summers no 

 warmer than those of the desert regions 

 of the Southwest. That the soil com- 

 prising large areas of this region is 

 suited to. the cultivation of many valu- 

 able crops is evident. In the small 

 garden, one of the largest on the Tigris, 

 however, of the Sheik Abdul Kader 

 Kederry, I found growing a large vari- 

 ety of fruit and other economic plants, 

 and, so far as the superficial observa- 

 tions of the writer are concerned, there 

 appears to be no reasou why any plant 

 which grows in the Nile Valley, and 

 which can be cultivated in Arizona and 

 southern California will not grow satis- 

 factorily in that vast region. The cot- 

 ton industry alone might find a very 

 congenial home in that country, and 

 from the samples examined it seems 

 probable that a very good quality of 

 Egyptian cotton could be produced 

 there. As for the patches of alkaline 

 soil, some of which are doubtless of 

 large size, the question of their utiliza- 

 tion would depend entirely upon the 

 amount of irrigation water which could 

 be furnished by the Tigris River, as 

 the experiments in the delta region of 

 the Nile have shown conclusively how 



easy it is to wash salt out of the soil 

 sufficiently to enable profitable crops to 

 be grown. 



An examination of the wheat markets 

 of Busra and Bagdad convinced the 

 writer that excellent hard wheats can 

 be grown in that region. Although it 

 is probable that the varieties best suited 

 to cultivation there would be those most 

 in demand for macaroni-making, some 

 soft varieties of good quality can doubt- 

 less be cultivated. 



The commonest — in fact, almost the 

 only — fodder crop of the region is the 

 alfalfa, or "Djet," which is, without 

 doubt, the widest distributed and most 

 important fodder crop in the world. It 

 is here grown, however, in garden fash- 

 ion, small patches of a fraction of an 

 acre seeming amply sufficient to supply 

 the demand for forage for the donkeys 

 and small herds of cattle which are kept 

 by the natives along the river. In 

 April the herbage of the desert is in its 

 most satisfactory condition for grazing, 

 and numerous small herds of cattle were 

 seen from time to time along the banks 

 of the river ; but their condition indi- 

 cated a lack of sufficient food, and I 

 could not but compare these herds of 

 half-starved animals with the well- 

 nourished stock of the Argentine alfalfa 

 fields or the tethered rows of sleek-look- 

 ing Oriental cattle in the Berseem fields 

 along the Nile. What the possibilities 

 for stock-raising are in that region will 

 depend entirely upon the amount of 

 alfalfa and such other crops, as Alex- 

 andrian clover, that can be successfully 

 grown. It is certain that races of ani- 

 mals can be found which will withstand 

 admirably the scorching summer heat 

 of the country. 



There is one feature of Bagdad life 

 which, though apparently small in it- 

 self, assumes a real importance to those 

 who live in that Oriental town. It is 

 the Bagdad boil. This boil deserves a 

 more serious name, for it is generally 

 more inconvenient and disagreeable than 



