436 



[December, 1912. 



Site of the Garden. 



Now, where was the original home of these interesting people, to 

 whom we all owe so much ? For reasons already given, it must have been 

 in some country of oases surrounded by deserts, and Arabia is such a 

 country- and at their very doors. The oases of Arabia are close at hand 

 to both the Nile and the Euphrates and the natural overflow of the 

 surplus population would be Egypt and Babylonia. 



Every part of the Euphrates delta, from Hit to the Persian gulf, has 

 at some time or another been called "Eden," the irrigated and cultivated 

 plain, as distinct fiom " Kura," the unirrigable hill or plain. So in Egypt 

 to-day the " reef" is the irrigated plain and everything else is the "jebel," 

 the desert where there is no rain and hill or mountain where there is rain. 

 Soil and climate are eminently suited to fruit gardening. From date 

 palms and oranges to peaches and plums every fruit tree is at home. The 

 date palm is really the indigenous tree of the country. "Put its feet in 

 water and its head in hell and it will do all the rest" is the saying of the 

 people. 



AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATION IN ENGLAND. 



Referring to the Agricultural Organization Society, the London Times 

 of November 1 says that in order to qualify for grants from the Develop- 

 ment Fund, the Society has now been reconstituted to meet certain 

 conditions laid down by the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries and the 

 Development Commission. 



Under the conditions the work of agricultural organization on co- 

 operative lines is to be continued on a more comprehensive scale. The 

 first governors, who hold office until April 1914, have been appointed by 

 the Board of Agriculture and the Development Commission jointly and 

 in addition to representatives of the old society's governing body, include 

 representatives of important agricultural interests and other public 

 bodies, e.g : The Board of Agriculture, the County Councils Association, 

 the Co-operative Union, railway companies and the County Land Agents' 

 Association. Mb, R. A. Yerburgh, jU.p., has been appointed the first 

 president and Lord Shaftesbury the chairman ot the governors. The 

 first meeting of the governors took place on October 9th last at the West- 

 minster Palace Hotel, 



TOBACCO IN QUEENSLAND. 



Mr, R. S. Nevill, Tobacco Expert, writing to the Queensland Agricul- 

 tural Journal of November, 1912, remarks that because tobacco is growing 

 wild about the country it is no evidence that it can be cultivated profitably 

 in any district. It requires a friable and not too heavy soil, a fairly 

 humid climate though the rainfall may not be heavy. Pipe tobacco should 

 be grown on the high country above the Range, inland, and cigar tobaccos 

 on the coastal country. 



It should be remembered that tobacco will not grow everywhere and 

 for the information of intending growers he suggests that only a small 

 experimental plot be tried at first and samples of the cured product sub- 

 mitted to manufacturers before going in largely. Good tobacco of both 

 varieties is in demand at good prices. 



