Photograph and copyright by Keystone View Co. 



SCENE IN A MODERN HENNERY 



The American hen could finance the digging of a Panama Canal every year. She presents 

 the country with twenty billion eggs and nearly half a billion young chickens annually. 



spots of the desert of Arabia, and espe- 

 cially along the Shat-el-arab River, at the 

 head of the Persian Gulf. This river is 

 formed by the union of the Tigris and 

 Euphrates, and it flows from their junc- 

 tion for a distance of 70 miles to the 

 Gulf of Persia through some of the rich- 

 est soil and one of the hottest climates in 

 the world. Here the date palm thrives 

 as nowhere else, and practically the whole 

 land is given up to its cultivation. The 

 date has been in America for generations, 

 having been carried to our southwestern 

 country by the Mission Fathers along 



with the olive. When grown systemat- 

 ically, it has rewarded those who have 

 cultivated it with fair returns (see page 

 76). 



SPICES AND FLAVORS 



The orchid family not only yields some 

 of the most beautiful flowers of which 

 we know, but it also produces one of the 

 most used of all the flavoring agents that 

 figure in the art of cooking. Vanilla is 

 made from the fruit of a climbing orchid, 

 a native of tropical America, but now 

 grown in Java, Ceylon, and other parts 



80 



