The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-04-23

81 three hundred thousand lyina n
fr,nt 81 ana below me as / Sod "a
the ..olf, one Of the highest pans
ef me oasis.
Ted hA Hot Springs.
Many of the oasis Of the Sahara lie
along dried-up water COURSES, which
are CODED during Il pare # the yEdf.
! %ui@ j. fed by hot springs. Wricl
Use ct - q hill in almost lie cen
ter, and are conducted BY under
ground drains bou a foot square,
made of stones and cement. through
the fifteen or twenty thousand acres
which are covered by these trees. Some
of these springs are lukewarm and
others have 4 temperature of about
100 degrees Fahrenheit.
There are seven villages in the
oasis, and the largest of these springs
are found in the date plantations IN
the highlands of the town of Eel Abid,
in about the center of the oasis. Who
first constructed these underground
drains which carry the water from
level to level no one seems to know.
Mir. PaScalet has asked many of the
Arabs. but their only reply is: w
do not know when they were built,
but it was many, many years ago 1t
may have been two centuries ago and
i: may have been longer, but how long
no one knows.
HEST dldIli dlc htpl II oldGl v
day and new ones are constructed
from time to time. There must be
hundreds OF miles of them for they
reach every part Of the oasis. being
connected in each of the village plan
tatiOns by great reservoirs where the
water is stored when not needed for
irrigation. Each tree, | am told, gets
a good drink at least twice a week.
During my stay l visited FL Abbi
and these springs. h palms grow
all about them. In some places they
are only two or three feet apart. and
the branches meet overhead, shutting
out the sun. Some of the springs are
in great watts. m are in hollows or
ravines and others in wells or square
tanks. During our visit the Arabs
were bathing in one Of the springs,
and crOWds Of white gOWned men with
rags about their heads looked out at
me over their long boards as / took
these notes. At one place Tack at
tempted to take a photograph of them,
but the Arabs protested and looked
angry, only to smile again when Nh.
Pascaler told then that we were
taking pictures of the palms and
springs, only: n that we had very
America and hence did not need to
take home pictures of the natives OF
FiSuig.
among the Date Plantations.
Fifteen thousand acres is q pretty
big farm, and as | estimate it, that
is just about the extent of these GASES.
This tiguig farm, however, is like
nothing you can imagine. 1t is di-
vided up into little pens of gardens
each of which is a date plantation
Many of the holdings are not more
than q quarter of an acre in size and
each is surrounded by walls from
eight to twelve feet in height. The
walls are of ~sun-dried brick pl4stered
with mud; and they usually face upon
the roads, so narrow that as | rode or
my horse through them | could easily
touch the mud bricks on both sides
Here inc there Il wall was broken al
! the top ard | could look OVer and sec
the date trees and the gardens within
Many of the date palms reach higl
above the wall; but others are no1
more than six feet in height n still
they bear dates. The trees are abOur
eight inches in diameter, and they
seem to carry an even thick ness from
the ground upward. h highes
were, | judge, not over twenty fee
tall. At the top they branch out il
great fan-like green leaves, and from
the roots of the leaves hang the clust-
crS of red and yellow dates. TIN
fruit is long. fiat and smooth and o
much the same shape as 4 butternu