The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-04-28

ing and others were as high as my head. Others were so tall that their Arab owner had to climb them to cut off the punches of dates, which always grow at the top.
 Vast Bed of Fertilizer.
 The soil of the Sahara is not like that of any country where. rain is common. Indeed, the lack of rain is one cause of it's great fertility. Other lands are leached by the water, and the brooks and streams carry a great part of their pot asn and other fertilizing matter out to the sea. This is not so here. The rocks may disntegrate more slowly, but the weathering goes on all the same. There Is no place where the. changes of tenn perature are more sudden and marked. The sun Is red hot during the day, but when 1t sets 1t becomes bitterly cold and blankets are by no means uncomfortable. I always carry an overcoat in my rides over tho desert, for l find that l need it.
 The changes are such that the rocks split and crumble under them. The desert winds are as strong as those -of the sea, and when the sirocco blows the sand cuts ones face. It dashes the sharp grains against the rocks and grinds them down, without the action of water, so that all the rich fertilizing materials lie where they fall.
 The oases will grow almost anything that Is grown in California. They have luscious oranges, grapes, melons and olives, and also apples, peaches, pome- granates and pears. In the northern Sa- hara they produce great quantities of wheat barley, millet and sorghum. and in the south tobacco and cotton. l see egg plants onions tomatoes and cucumbers for sale in the markets, together with peas. beans, turnips and carrots. The chief product, however, is dates.
 Millions of Date Palms.
 The date palm thrives throughout the Sahara if 1t can only have water. It is like wheat in our country; the money crop of every oasis and the chief support of the people. Indeed, an oasis Is known, not by the number of its inhabitants, but by the number of date palms it contains, and It's inhabitans are rich or poor, ac- cording as the dates produced are good or indifferent. It Is the date crop that loads the caravans, and 1t is the food of the people, The date Is, in fact, the bread of the desert; In some places the people eat little else. and dates are fed to the camels and even to dogs. Such dates are not like those we have in America. They are sort of dry date. which can be stored away and kept for years. The dates sent to the United States are of a soft variety, SO full of juice that they are often drained before they are packed. Other dates might be called table dates These are delicious when eaten fresh from the trees We have them now every day at our dinner and served at breakfast with the coffee and rolls. They are fat yellow date, as sweet as sugar and as plump as a prune before 1t is pressed.
 The Gases of Tuat.
 Among the oases fed by dried rivers those of Tuat produce about the best dates, although their product is not so good as the dates of Tahlet, which lies at some distance from here in Morocco.
 Tuat is now controlled by the French. 4- has Tuaregs on camels, under the em- ploy of the Algerian government, patrol ling it to keep order, and it's people have become peaceful and thriving.
 Tuat is not one oasis only It is com posed of five large groups of oases In the very center of the Sahara. comprising three or four hundred petty states. It is scattered over a region as big as In- diana, and it has altogether popula- ton of 1200 GOO Arabs, Berbers and blacks. The people of Tuat govern themselves much as do those of Figuig. Each oasis has it's own officers, and altogether they are set of little republics with a unuited