Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-04-05
THE ARABS GARDEN.
A Spot Singularly Favored by Nature,
Which Should Rank as the
FLORIDA OF THE GREAT ORIENT.
Parting Peeps at the Old City of Algiers,
With Description of
ITS sEMI-BARBARIO STREET SCENES

from the city of Algiers in any direction i
the interior, to discover, aside from th
human interest which is absorbing on ever
hand. and the scenic beauties and splendor
which are unexpected and surprising, tina
here the French have found a new empir
whose possibilities as a garden spot for en-
joyment and material development surpas
all ordinary calculation. The native interio
population and their strange manners an,
customs have been we'll and fully described
But 1 have seen presented no references t
those things on which the future of any coun
try, must depend. In what respect ma,
France be vastly benefited by its Algerian
possession at such stupendous original cos
of life and treasure?-is the constant query
of the earnest reader and earnest observer
The answer is everywhere given in such stu
pendous proofs of rich rewards, that the Wis
itor is constantly forced away from the con
temptation of the native people, customs anc
archaeology, to the liveliest, most exciting
speculations upon commercial and agricul
tural possibilities under the new and en-.
lightened regime.
As to climate one Is reminded constantly
of the vast variety accessible in Mexico
Every possible degree of heat or cold can be
definitely secured during nine months of the
| year. 1t is only question of ones location
within tropical valley, far-reaching table
land, mountain side plateau, or crisp and
freezing height. So, too, every form of veg
citation known to torrid, temperate or frigid
zone is here discoverable by the botanist.
Within an area of ten square miles one may
see, in midwinter months, prodigious Jae-
queminots, jonquils, Marchael Neil roses
a nd inn patfo he 1or fba sf
luxuriant American locust; eucalyptus
trees, cacti, hedges of pomegranate, orange
and lemon, interspersed with lordly roses;
pear, apple and other northern fruit trees;
wild olive and carob trees; eYergreens, oaks
and cedars as astonishing in girth and
height as the tremendous redwoods of Cali
fornia and Washington; and, at last, set
like beds of emerald against the white
canoes Of mouptain SHOWS, vast and untrod-
den forests of noble pine.
A FRUITFUL REGION.
Traficable and always profitable products
of the soil, but 25 hours distance by steamer
from European entrepots, are cultivable in
Algeria in an equal proportion and variety.
As Cuba and Florida are now in a degree,
and in time will become comprehensively,
the "truck" gardens of American cities, SO
Algeria is already largely, and will eventu-
ally become, like the little Scilly Islands,
off Cornwall to London, the supply garden
of Europe. Algiers is but % hours distance
from Cadiz, Barcelona, Marseilles, Rome
and Venice, 4S hours from Madrid and Paris,
and but so hours-the same time as Jack
sonville, Fla, is from New York and Chi
cago-from Vienna, Berlin and London.
ANY morning you may enter the market in
the Place de la Lyre or in Place de Chartres,
in Algiers. and the exhibition of eggs, pota-
toes, peas, beans. asparagus, mushrooms ar
tichokes, caulitiower, lettuce, and all known
northern and tropical vegetables; roses and
branches of buds, blooms and blossoms.
such as all Cuba cannot surpass; and apples,
plums, pears, cherries. dates, figs, bananas,
tamarinds, pomegranates, melons and every
known delicious fruit of every land and
cline; is something your eyes can never
elsewhere behold. And yet all this is but
hint Of what another quarter century of
French husbandry in Algiers will be able to
disclose.
In general, fruits, cereals and other aeri-
cultural products for necessary consumption
and profitable export are vastly more varied
in number, and average a higher grade of
excellence and perfection, than in any other
known land. In ancient times the Barbary
States were an overfowing granary for old
Rome. For more than thousand years AL
gerian soil has rested fallow, only scratched
and prodded here and there by the primitive
plow of the crooked olive-tree root. To-day,
every acre of Algeria's 100000 square miles
is stored with the riches of these thousand
years OF recuperation and strength France,
then, has found what is practically new
America 25 hours from home, wherein she
may remove the overplus power of her
splendid industrial activities; with the
Aad aHu ntor Of ea,1 Al, Ii
of incidentally diversified employment.
ITS CHOICE PRODUCTS.
Even the date, that precious almost mama
of the Arab, the feet of whose tree are in
''the water and its branches in the flames of
heaven" is Transforming the northern edge
of Sahara into a garden, through French
irrigation. Two crops of potatoes are an
nually yielded. Beetroot for sugar manu-
facture is already successfully cultivated.
The fig is everywhere, forms an immense
food supply when fresh, is exported for
spirits distillation, and no American need
be told of its universal foreign consumption
when cured. Nearly all the guava jellies,
which come by way of France, are made
from the Algerian fruit. Algerian bananas
and oranges of the most delicious flavor, are
now rivaling in the European markets the
same fruit from the Azores, Canaries and
the West Indies. Wheat, barley, rye and
corn as fine as produced anywhere in
America, and already to yield of nearly
400, 900 bushels, are grown. Cotton is
still in an experimental status; but speci-
mems of extrs0rdinary yield and texture are
secured. The vast tobacco plantations of
Mascara and elsewhere are now producing a
leaf the equal if not the superior of the most
priced product of the sunny valleys behind
Havana.
But more than all this, if you have
loitered in the noblest vineyards of France,
Spain and Italy, you will find that those of
Algeria now surpass the most splendid
plantations either of those countries ever
knew. Years ago the French savant, M.
Dejernon, commissioned by his Government
to study and report the subject, said: ''The
vine will become the fortune of the country.
1t can produce an infinite variety of vines,
suited to every constitution and to every
caprice of taste" The promise is already
fulfilled, though grape-growing and wine
making are yet in their infancy. What all
the travellers and poets have written upon
the vineyards of Southern Europe within
the past two centuries, will be true before
the close of the present century in this
wondrous land where the swallows home
beneath genial winter sun.
A parting peep at Algiers was taken in
the old Arab quarter of the city. One
ceases to wonder over the rhapsodies of
artists upon this bit of Moresoue holding
itself sturdily against all inroads of modern
progress. Its outlines still very clearly de-
fine those of the ancient city. Down here
harborward are the grand boulevards
plazas, palaces and shops of the new Paris
the French have made. The two great gen.
eral markets. the fish market of the port,
and two stately mosques occupy line Of
common ground upon which all nationali-
ties seem to meet.
A REMARKABLE LABYRINTH.
T~or, +l,;s lino broad houo oF noor1,,