OU ON THE APPLICATION OF ALFA OB ESPARTO 



the dwarf -palm, lentisk, asphodel, and squill, on all untilled land. On 

 soils, of which the basis is chalk, the dwarf-palm and asphodel pre- 

 dominate ; on stony soils, in which silica and iron replace alumina and 

 lime, alia, in close tufts, grows abundant in the plains up to the mountain 

 ridges, excluding, however, the culminating heights of mountain chains. 

 The districts of Mers-el-Kebir, Ai'n-el-Turk, Bouzefer, to the west of 

 Oran ; of Saint Cloud, Fleurus, Kristel (mountain of the lions), Saint 

 Louis, Arzew, to the East ; the forest of Muley-Ismael, the Macta, in 

 the direction of Mostaganem ; the slopes north of the mountains which 

 border on the south the plains of the Zig and of the Hobra, are localities 

 exceedingly favourable to the industry, and amply supplied to meet the 

 wants of the French trade. By concentrating the means and capital 

 on the littoral of this province, they are placed in the neighbourhood of 

 existing roads, and of those which will shortly be opened. The ports of 

 Arzew, Oran, Mers-el-Kebir ; the places of embarkation for feluccas, of 

 Ain-el-Turk, Bouzefer, the mouth of the Macta, are so many places 

 where depots for the collected alia can be established ; each of these 

 localities corresponds to a centre of population, farm, village, or town, 

 under the regular and efficacious protection of civil and military ad- 

 ministrations. The Arab tribes are in daily communication with the 

 French : this element, together with the Spaniards, Moors, and others, 

 who make up, more or less, the floating population of the country, will 

 6iipply labourers for the gathering of alia, as soon as a respectable estab- 

 lishment, worthy of confidence, shall have been at work for more than 

 a year. 



At what time of the year and under what conditions of maturity 

 ought the gathering to take place ? In its wild state, a tult of alia con- 

 sists of withered leaves, leaves that have attained maturity and are still 

 full of sap, and lastly, of young tender shoots not yet expanded. Taking 

 the plant in this view, it might be said that the gathering can 

 be done at any time, provided that at any period of the year, 

 the tuft yields fibrous matter suitable for making paper. But 

 if alfa is subjected to a systematic and regular process, all is 

 changed : if care is taken, as in Spain, to pluck off all the dry dead 

 Bhoots from the stem ; if all the shoots that come to maturity are 

 gathered, if the young shoots only are left, then the plant is in complete 

 cultivation and the gathering becomes annual ; it should be done at a 

 fixed time. Is it necessary, as in Spain, where alfa is used for making 

 rope, cord, carpets, to wait until the seed is quite ripe and the leaves 

 be-in to fade. Ought, on the contrary, the moment to be seized when the 

 leaves, wholly curled up, do not re-open under the alternate influence 

 of light and moisture, without taking account of the state of the seed, 

 ripe or not ? 



As regards paper-making, the chemical analysis of the plant settles 

 the question : the matured leaf has in its constituent elements, silica 

 and iron, upon which chemical agents act with difficulty : the boiling, 



