The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-02-26

Once the aua OF fsufne IL a. NAV
the Nin Bottle and Bread Basket
Of pari-it Has Hundreds <sf Thou
sand of french CoIoni~ts and Over
-Four Million Molranlniclans-
Frank O.. Carpenter Nriie- os oran
il Great Nc~tern pori-iic Gross
cd ilic Country from the Sra 10 the
Sahara aud Describe, it. TRANCE
Sigiit-a I;icl, Land Of Vineyards
and Grain icld-. ctc.
Oran. Western Algeria have
left Morocco ana am now travelling
in African Franco. ! landed al Oran
three weeks ago. and have already
made my way through the rich lands
Of the Tell. across the high platcaus
which are upheld between the ranges
Of the Atlas Mountains anu down in
70 the Desert Of Sahara. am now
hack in oran. the chief seaport or
Western Algeria, and am about TO
START on a " hundred and sixty
mile railroad journey eastward 10
Algiers, the capital.
African France.
Before begin describing my
travels. | want TO tell YOU what the
French nave in Africa. Their pos
sessions include more than o%ne-thiTd
Of the continent. a territory several
hundred thousand miles larger than
the whole United states. together
with Alaska and or outlaying coll
onies. Practically the whole of the
Sahara west of the Llbyan Desert
belongs 10 them, and hat alone is
half as big as the United States
| 0 They have an enormous dis
trict south of the Sahara which is
known as French Central Africa. and
several colonies along the gulf of
Guinea. The French Congo, which
is north Of the Belgian Congo. runs
northward so as to take IN a part of
Lake Chad, and covers, all told. an
area ten times as large as the State
of Illinois. 1t is inhabited by fifteen
million people, the most of whom are
let black negroes of the most de-
based types.
The richest of the French posses
sions. however. are along the south
coast of the Mediterranean sea. COM
prising the two great states Of Al
geria and Tunisia. OF these Iunisla
is protectCrate. 1t is almost absolute
" governed by the French, and they
are rapidly developing it. Algeria on
the other hand, is now a part of the
| French republic. It is a French
state. 1t holds its own elections and
it has three senators and six
in Tho parliament at Paris. Its gov
ernor general is a Frenchman anu
most of its officials are natives of the
French republic.
The Best French Colony
Indeed. Algeria is by far the best
piece of property France has outside
her own boundaries. 1t is he" great
winter garden which furnishes TIE
chief vegetables for all the French
cities. an dthe granary which supplies
Il large part of her flour. Fast steam
| ers carry the garden stuff across the
Mediterranean in a day and in thirty
six hours it S for sale in the Halir5
General IN Paris. Some OF the pest
wines used in France are made in THIS
country. and Algeria gives France i'm
ports to the mount of about sixty
million dollars q year. France, her-
self. annually sends forty or fifty mil
lion dollars worth of her wares to
Algeria and the trade between the two
countries steadily grows.
Many look upon Algeria as a little
strip of mountain and desert. The
truth is. that part Of it lying along the
Mediterranean and running back -
the foothills of the Atlas. has some 81
the richest soil on earth. 1t is onlE
from thirty to one hundred mics
wide. but is several hundred miles
long. including a territory about rs
large as New York and Massachusetts
combined. 1T has more good land by
far than both these states. This land
is known as the Tell. 1t runs clear
across Algeria and on into Tunisia. 1t
has been for centuries the granery Of
this part Of the world. The PhOenl-
clans and Carthagenians built empires
upon it. and it was for a long time
one of the principal bread baskets Of
imperial Rome. Il was fought for by
the Nandals. the Greeks and in the
eighth century was conquered by the
Arabs. who made the country Moham-
medan. as it is today.
\ Bird's-Eye View OF Algeria.
Algeria consists of these rich lanos
of the Tell. of the high plateaus of thu
Atlas. lust below them. and of the
foothills running down to the Sahara.
The country is just about as long
from east to west as from Philadel-
phia to Cleveland. and as wide as
from Washington to Boston, by way
of New York. It contains altogether
AS much land as all New England,
added to New York, Pennsylvania,
New Jersey and Louisiana.
1T is divided into three provinces.
each beginning at the Mediterranean
and cutting across to the Sahara.
h largest of these is at the east, and
is known as Constantine. 1t is almost
AS big as Minnesota and it has several
hundred thousand more people. The
next is Algiers. which is not far from
the size of Missouri, with a popula-
ton of sixteen hundred thousand, and
the other is the western province &c
Oran. where I am writing. Oran is
about the size Of Pennsylvania.
and it has a population of more than
a million.
The total population of the whole
country now a~pproximates five mil
lions, and of these almost four hum
dred thousand are French. There arc
also several hundred thousand other
Europeans. made up of Spaniards,
Italians, Maltese and Jews. The rest
of the Algerians are MOhammedans,
Africans. and three out of every five
of them is an Arab. There are also
about seven hundred thousand white
Africans known as kabyles and about
thousand Jews.
Negroes and Ex-Slaves.
Here in Oran there as a large num-
Der of Spaniards and many negroes
were originally brought across
the Sahara as slaves and sold in the
market of Algiers. In some of tie
Algerian GASES the people are about
negroes, and l see many here IN
he town. The negro women often
act as shampooers in the Moorish BATH
houses. and many of the men are beg