458 Abstract Report of Agricultural Discussions. 
among the Arabs, but also to enable themselves to mount the French 
cavalry with Arab horses of the best description. For that purpose, 
as much as from 80/. to 100?. each is paid for mares, and from 30L 
to 40/. for stallions. Many of the French cavalry regiments even in 
France are now being mounted with horses of Arab blood, which 
are found very hardy and serviceable. 
The soil in the neighbourhood of Mostaganem was a dark red 
soil of excellent quality. Fig-trees were numerous; and the 
■whole district was admirably suited for the growth of sugar-beet. 
He there met with a veiy intelligent Jersey farmer called " Jemmy 
Bro\\'n," who had been settled in Algeria about twenty years, and 
cultivated about GO acres of very productive land. His corn crops 
failed from drought once in five years, but never failed when they were 
irrigated. There were no taxes on the land, or on any kind of pro- 
duce except tobacco, which was in fact a Government monopoly. Tho 
climate and soil were the best in the world for vines, tigs, almonds, 
and olives ; the mulberry did well, but labour was not plentiful 
enough for it. This small farm was cultivated like a garden. The 
soil was a deep, light, sandy loam. "Water was applied to it regu- 
larly, and vegetables chietly were grown ujion it for market. This 
Jerseyman had made a well, 24 feet deep, at a cost of 140/., which, 
with one horse, enabled him to water the whole of his farm, the 
w^ork being performed at the rate of 7 or 8 acres per day. He grew 
two crops of potatoes a year, Avhich were ripe in six weeks after 
coming up ; and he cut oats and barley three times for forage. His 
meadow was most extraordinary : it consisted of lucerne, and was 
watered every six days, and cut ten times a year ; and it continued 
in the ground ten years (what he saw, had been there six years). 
It was ready in twenty days ; and a space of 19 yards square kept 
two horses the whole year. The vineyard needed no w^ater. It 
cost 5/. an acre to prepare and plant, paid its expenses in the second 
year, and yielded a profit in the third year : 8/. per acre was 
obtained for an outlay of 32s. 
He also visited a French farmer, the Viscount d'Armagnac, an 
old French general, who w^as settled on the plain of Mina. Tho 
wines there produced seemed to him just like the red wines of 
Provence, and the French regard Algeria as a wine country of 
great promise. Objections Avere at one time ofiered to the culti- 
vation of the vine in Algeria hy the vine-growers of the south of 
France ; but these had now been done away, and it was anti- 
cipated that the vineyards would rapidly increase. General 
d'Armagnac had about 2000 acres of land, all of good quality. 
He sowed his wheat and barley in October, and reaped in April. 
The corn crops were followed by an oil crop called " sesame." This 
plant produced an oil similar to olive-oil, but -much purer. "When 
grown in India it cannot be imported in perfection because the oil 
turns rancid in its passage through hot climates ; hence a greater 
value is attached to the growth of sesame in Algeria, whence it 
could bo sent in perfection to France or any other European 
country. The Viscount grew it to a considerable extent, and found 
