The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-06-18
Uncle Sam in North Africa
Continued from Page OneD

OlIJIC Sdll llA NU1 III AIIICd
Continued from Page One)
only about 5000, whereas France
sent in similar goods TO the amount OF
moro than 100000. England is
now selling something like $1.oO0.o 600
rians. n rance about half that
amount. The timber Of north Africa
comes chiefly from Norway. 1t
might be sent from our southern
states. The whole country is almost
treeless. and all the wood of value
Among the Farmers.
Punisia and Algeria once supplied
the bread for Italy, and they are now
m Of the gread baskets of Europe.
They produce quantities of wheat and
other grains; but the farming is 50
poor that the average wheat and other
grains; but the farming is SO poorsthat
the average whea yield of Algeria is
less than eight bushels per acre;
whereas ours is thirteen bushels. and
that of the wheat belt of Canada
With proper machinery this yield
might be doubled. The dry lands of
northern Africa need deep cultivation
to preserve the moisture, and it may
be that a vast amount of new land
can be brought into use by what is
now known as dry farming. At present
the surface is only scratched. The
plows are so light that you could
swing one around your head as easily
as a well loaded Indian club. and the
armer often carry them to and from
the fields on their forked sticks shod
with a thin piece of iron. They have
but one handle. and are SO made that
tho inxyrr n ~ - loo nr nnnl 10 nrncc
upon them as he walks through the
burrows. The result is that large
punches of weeds or bushes cannot
be plowed up, and the farmers work
their way in and out through the
brush. They have to cut most of their
grain with the sickle. as it would
be impossible to run a mower through
the field.
Farming Machinery.
1t is only the French settlers, and
one of the bankers of Tunis and whose
modern machinery, and it is only in
Algeria that u machinery is used.
We sell q hundred thousand dollars
worth or 50 Of agricultural imple-
ments there every year, this being
worth of machinery annually import
ed. There is no reason why there
should not be a good demand for
American plows, and also for our
mowers, reapers, n threshing ma
chimes. At present the grain is either
trodden out of the straw by horses.
oxen or donkeys, or ground out by
driving heavy heavy sleds about over
it. The shaft is blown away by
throwing the straw against the wind.
Within the past few years the most
of the Tunisian wheat has been ex-
ported to France, while the Tunisians
have bought Russian wheat for their
own nSp The reason for thjS iS that
Tunisian wheat. inasmuch as it comes
from one Of the French colonies, is
admitted to France free from duty,
whereas all other foreign wheat pays
a high tariff. Such wheat as Tunis it
self imports pays practically nothing,
and SO the people have been bringing
in Russian wheat and sending their
own off to France and making there
by a big profit off the difference in the
respective tariffs. The French gov
eminent has now discovered this trick.
and l understand that it will soon tax
Tunisian grain just as it does the grain
from other countries.
Our Mining Machinery.
Our manufacturers of mining ma
chinery should keep their eyes on this
part Of North Africa. Both Algeria
and Tunisia are developing their min
erals. Algeria a already given eighty
concessions for mining iron, zinc, sill
YER, lead, mercury, copper, antimony
and coa 1t produced about $500, 900
worth of iron last year and something
like $4,000 tons of zinc ore. There
was also a considerable output of cop
per and silver. Within the past few
petroleum has been found in
Oran. and phosphate beds are being
developed in different parts of Algeria.
/ am told thai there are phosphates
all over the southern part of Tunisia.
I NOV =nf u !
Sfax whose shares have jumped up a
.hOusan per cent within the last two
or three years. The phoSphates are
Gafsa and they are now reaches
by railroad. They are brought on the
trains TO SfaX and are sent from there
at the rate of about a shipload per
day, the bulk of the product going -
Europe. Tunisia sold more than So
worth of p~hosphates last year.
Overrun by Italians.
find that The French Tunisians are
alarmed at the large influx
of Italians. The Sicilians and NeapoIi-
tans in large numbers are coming over
to Tunisia to buy and and to AXE
advantage of the inducements offered
to ~colonists. Boat al go from here
to Naples in thirty-six hours and the
from Palermo is made in a
night.
The Sicilians just now are terribly
poor, and the taxation is such tina
they can make no money in farming.
They are thrifty and do we'll on these
poor lands of North Africa.
AS it is now there are perhaps as
Italians as French in unisia
The French peasant loves his home.
and he viii not leave Withou he THINKS
he is going to have things all his own
way.
The chief rouble with farming, in
this part of the world, is the scanty
Centuries ago the land was
heavily wooded, and in the times of
the Romans there was a great olive
forest extending all the way from
Tunls to Algiers, a distance about as
great as from Philadelphia to Chicago.