Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 47, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 July 1891 — Irrigating the Sahara. [ARTICLE]

Irrigating the Sahara.

I saw yesterday, says a Paris lettei in the Providence Journal, a f osimile Of an enterprise commenced by the province of Algeria which bids fair to revolutionize a large portion of the world. It was the representation in miniature of the third plantation of 10,000 palm trees which has been made (since 1880-81 in the desert of Sahara as artificial oases on the lines of the principal routes of travel. These have all been perfectly successful. The trees have grown mnguificiently and become a source of refreshment and rest, which put aside the risks an 5 dangers of desert travel. The system is based upon the production of watei from artesian wells, conducted turougS the fields in shallow ditches, which nourish the roots of trees and plants, and change tho plain of sand into a garden of shade and verdure, on other forms of vegetation *.'ll t ; introduced in the shadow of the trees, which will shelter tho frailer growths otherwise impossible under the ferw* I sunshine. Long ago, in the time of tuo empire, there was some question of % process invented by the De Leaseps and much encouraged by the Empress Eugenie to form a great lake in the center of Sahara by a canal cut from the Mediterranean. Whether feasible or no the disaster of Sedan caused the collapse of this scheme also, and the possibility of success in the enterprise must he left forever in doubt But “ is strange that this simpler method was not earlier attempted; or, now that its perfect feasibility has bssn proven that it Is not now made of more general use. ■■ ~ ’