246 



DRY FARMING CONGRESS. 



and so maintain a permanent existence? The most conclusive answer to 

 this question will be found by going to the desert region of the Sahara, 

 in Tunis, where Mr. Kearney, one of the explorers for the Department of 

 Agriculture, has studied a remarkable industry in the growth of olives for 

 the production of oil. Not only this, but his observations have been con- 

 firmed by ancient historical documents, showing that in that desert re- 

 gion in the palmy days of the Roman Empire there existed a vast Moorish 

 civilization. Populous well-built cities, some of whose names even are not 

 now known, are evidenced by vast ruins; temples of magnificent propor- 

 tions are still grand in their desolation; the ruins of the second largest 

 coliseum in the world are found there; and the explanation of it all is 

 afforded by the frequent occurrence of ruins of great stone oil mills, with 

 the stones for the grinding of the olives and the vats for the receiving of 

 the oil. A careful historian has recorded even the details of the indus- 

 try, telling how the olives were ground and pressed, how the oil was re- 

 fined and clarified, how it was transported in huge vessels of bullock 

 skins upon carts drawn by bullocks, and even how the tanned leather 

 was sewn into hose pipes and how an ingenious artisan had constructed 

 a pump by which the oil was lifted from the stone tanks and forced into 

 these skin receptacles. A Roman general, whose name I cannot recall, 

 having become offended at the remissness of some little village of this 

 region, whose very place upon the map is now lost, levied a fine upon 

 them of 30,000 gallons of olive oil, and as was the habit of Roman gen- 

 erals, collected it. With the overrunning of the country by the Arabs in 

 all probability the greater extent of this magnificent industry was de- 

 stroyed, to be revived in modern times by their descendants. 



Must we suppose this country enjoyed a greater rainfall then than 

 at present? There is no evidence to support this conclusion. Remains of 

 reservoirs, canals and aqueducts for the most careful economizing of the 

 water afforded by the country still exist, but of no greater capacity than 

 would be required to handle the rainfall of the present day. A good many 

 of these ancient olive trees seem to have survived, and the industry under 

 French management is today being expanded and developed to its utmost, 

 so that the port of Sfax, on the Mediterranean, is again becoming an im- 

 portant export point for this oil production. The carefully kept statistics 

 of the French show the rainfall during recent years to have ranged from 

 about 6 1-2 inches to 15 inches, with an average of 8 1-2 inches. 



One who has seen the prosperous olive orchards in the irrigated re- 

 gions of California must not imagine that this series of orchards is 

 managed in a similar way. In California olive groves the plantng distance 

 is from 21 to 24 feet. In Tunis groves it is 60 to 80 feet. 



Recent Methods o£ Dry-Land Farming. 



Concerning the subject of the most recent developments in the meth- 

 ods of dry-land farming, the best of which are supposed to be embodied 

 in the so-called "Campbell" system of soil culture, if we may judge Mr. 

 Campbell's ancestry correctly by his name, while his forbears ^were still 



