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The National Geographic Magazine 



two kinds of the host of sorts known to 

 the true date eaters, the Arabs, and 

 that those we prize as delicacies are by 

 no means looked upon by the desert- 

 dwellers as their best. The search has 

 brought to light as well the hard, dry 

 date, which Americans do not know at 

 all, and which they will learn to appre- 

 ciate as a food, just as the Arab has. 

 Already Egyptian and Algerian im- 

 ported palms have borne and ripened 

 fruit, and many persons in close touch 

 and sympathy with the work have sam- 

 pled the first fruits of the newly intro- 

 duced industry. 



To all of us who have seen the date 

 palm forests of the old world deserts 

 and who have followed the progress of 

 the experiments in this country, the 

 landscape of the deserts of Arizona 

 and California will not long be thought 

 of without the presence of these stately 

 plants that have so much that is biblical 

 and ancient about them. 



the; carob tree; or st John's bread 



No tree of the Mediterranean region 

 is more beautiful than the Italian car- 

 rubo, the carob or St John's bread of the 

 English. In Sicily it is under its shade 

 that the tired tourist stops to rest, and in 

 Spain it is the orchards of the algaroba 

 that attract his attention by their dark- 

 green foliage and picturesque form. Few 

 realize that this tree is seldom planted 

 for its shade or for its landscape effect, 

 but for its pods. 



These are born in profusion and are 

 most highly prized as fodder. There are 

 carob-sellers in Spain, just as there are 

 barley-buyers here, and these sellers ex- 

 port their carobs to this country in large 

 quantities. The thick brown pods are 

 full of a sweet honey-like fluid that runs 

 out if you break them open. Cattle and 

 horses are exceedingly fond of them, and 

 children eat them, too, even in this land 

 of cheap candies. Their nutritive value 

 is high, so high in fact that a Wisconsin 

 manufacturer makes one of the best calf 

 foods on the market out of them. 



The carob has already found a home 



in our West, and there are fruiting trees 

 near Los Angeles to prove that it has 

 come to stay. 



EGYPTIAN COTTON INTRODUCTION 



America is the greatest cotton-produc- 

 ing country in the world, but neverthe- 

 less over 112,000 bales of cotton were 

 imported from Egypt in 1899. There 

 are distinctly different kinds of this great 

 staple, and the Egyptian cotton supplies 

 a different demand from the so- 

 called upland cotton of this country. It 

 is a variety with a long, very silky and 

 crinkly fiber of a light-brown color, and 

 has been found better than the upland 

 for the manufacture of stockings and 

 underwear and for mixing with silk. It 

 is not the equal of the Seal Island cotton 

 that is grown on the islands off the 

 Atlantic coast, but the area in which the 

 Sea Island varieties can be grown is 

 very limited and the supply is disposed 

 of at fancy prices. It was thought that 

 the Egyptian cotton might be success- 

 fully grown in the South, and numerous 

 attempts to introduce it have been made 

 by the department; but while the plants 

 grew well, they proved poor yielders, 

 and their culture has been abandoned, 

 although Dr H. J. Webber has since 

 made a large quantity of hybrids between 

 this Egyptian cotton and the upland sorts 

 and these are more promising. 



In the great Colorado River valley, 

 however, which is the American Egypt, 

 and has its dry, mild climate, its irriga- 

 tion systems, and its long growing sea- 

 son, the Egyptian cotton promises much. 

 There fields of it have been grown that 

 resemble in almost every way the great 

 fields along the Nile, and with the rapid 

 increase in population that is taking 

 place along the Colorado River will 

 come the demand for this, the great 

 money-making crop of Egypt. 



ALFALFAS FROM TURKESTAN AND ARABIA 



From many standpoints alfalfa is the 

 greatest forage crop in the world, and 

 when its immense money value is con- 

 sidered the importance of a better va- 



