Chapter XXII: Other Products

Apart from the breeding of sheep on the Hauts Plateaux and in the Sahara, we also find cattle-raising in the Tell and in the coast hills of the department of Oran, while horse-breeding is carried on all along the southern slopes of the Atlas. The cattle are not very big, and would compare sadly with any European breed, but they bring in a comfortable little revenue to the breeder and suffice for the needs of the country.

Horses are more in the hands of the Europeans, who have created some quite good centers for improving the strain, but generally speaking, the fiery steed associated with pictures of Arab life is conspicuous by its absence, and, though one can get an average mount for the asking, a really fine horse is hard to buy.

The breeding of camels, mules and donkeys is entirely in the hands of the Arabs and is of little interest financially.

Algeria is, however, essentially an agricultural country and has been so ever since the days of the Romans. Unfortunately the richness of its soil and the abundance of sunshine is handicapped by the lack of regular rain, and the farmers live always in fear of drought.

Dams have been made across some of the big river-beds which are full of water in winter, but they are not so complete as in the days of the Romans. Two thousand years ago Algeria was the granary of a great empire; now in good years it exports a vast proportion of its cereals, but in a bad year it has to import. Wheat, barley, oats are grown all over the department of Oran, and in the center and the south of Constantine. There is also some grain in the department of Algiers, and little by little the sowing is extending. This is due a great deal to the energy of the manager of an American firm, the International Harvester Company, which has proved to the Algerian farmer the amount that can be done to improve production by using modern methods and perfected machinery.

The vine, though it does not cover nearly so large an area as the cereals, is considered as of almost greater importance.

It is some fifty years since the first Frenchman came to Algeria in search of soil not infested by phylloxera and attempted planting vineyards. The results were so amazing that more and more people hurried over the Mediterranean, and in twenty years the land was producing ten times the amount of wine as at the start. This, however, nearly led to disaster, as there was suddenly a glut of wine on the market and the prices dropped to nothing. However, the system was soon reorganized, and Algiers now exports a seventh of its production to the mother country. This wine, being stronger in alcohol and in color than French wine, is used for blending purposes. Many of the Burgundies and Bordeaux which do not come from some specific vineyard are half Algerian, and practically three parts of the _vins ordinaires_ served in French cafés come from over the Mediterranean.

In Algiers itself there are certain well-known _crus_, such as La Trappe de Staoueli, a plain wine, Medea, and Miliana from the hills.

In Oranie, too, there are one or two small wine-producing districts, such as Mascara; but practically all the vineyards are in the department of Algiers, and center round the plain of the Mitidja and the adjacent hills. All modern improvements for pressing and fermenting have been brought in, for as the picking takes place in the heat of summer, the fermenting is a very delicate operation.

Phylloxera has been practically stamped out and though drought is feared, it has not the same disastrous effects as on the cereals, owing to a certain amount of irrigation.

The great danger is a sirocco just before the _vendange_. It seems unbelievable, but I have seen entire vineyards withered up in six hours under the blast of this terrible hot wind from the south. One can actually see the leaves turning brown and the bunches of grapes shriveling, just as if a fire had been lighted beneath the vines. Luckily this only happens once in a while, and the average years are good.

The wine is strong and rather heady, coarse in comparison to the French wines, but very well suited to the rather special food of the country.

In the same district as the vine we find the mandarin, orange, and lemon plantations. Protected by cypress-trees, the golden fruit is grown in large quantities, and exported daily during the winter months.

A curious herb known as geranium is also grown on this fertile plain. It is made into perfume, and supplies the base for cheap scent. A great deal of it goes to England, and, curiously enough, the only other country where it is cultivated in quantity is Mauritius.

All along the coast east and west of Algiers we find the market-gardens for early vegetables. The expert labor is chiefly supplied by Majorcans and Sicilians, and during a good year it is a most profitable occupation, as the markets of Paris and other big centers are supplied from these tiny seacoast gardens.

Next in importance comes the tobacco industry. The best plantations are along the coast east of Algiers, in the lower levels of the Kabyle country, and, again, in that wonderfully fertile plain of the Mitidja. Provided one can obtain the suitable soil, it is one of the most profitable products to exploit—little cost, and none of the worry or expense incurred by the Regie, as in France. Moreover, it is quite a high-class tobacco, and some of the cigars are really quite good smoking, while the pipe tobacco and the cigarettes can be offered to the most _difficile_. It is much healthier smoking as there are no foreign matters or mixtures, but just the pure leaf, which differs according to district.

Figs are grown in great quantity in the Kabyle Mountains, and are exported. In the prolongation of the same mountains and all along the coast to Tunisia the cork forests abound. This industry is much developed, and English and American firms vie with the Algerians to obtain concessions and export the cork to their own countries.

The olive-tree is indigenous to Algeria, and grows wild on all the mountains. In certain centers the trees are grafted, and the olives are plucked and oil extracted from them.

Apart from the fruit-bearing trees, however, the forests of Algeria are few and far between. Here and there one comes upon magnificent cedars and pines, but it is not a wooded country, and a great deal of the timber is imported.

There are people who maintain that Algeria was once covered with forests, and that the same state of things could be reproduced. I am not of this opinion; in the first place, because of the absence of practically any coal, and second, by the fact that the country is, and always has been, essentially agricultural.

There are minerals of many kinds in Algeria, but never in great quantity. Iron, zinc, lead and copper have been found, but they are not worked, merely taken out of the ground and sent to Europe.

A little oil has been tapped in Oranie, but up to the present not in sufficient quantity to make its development interesting from a commercial point of view. The same can be said of the small coal-field discovered near Colomb Bechar, in the south of the same department.

The most interesting product of the soil is phosphates, which are found in great quantity in the department of Constantine, whence they are exported daily from the ports of Bougie and Bône.

Hot springs abound in Algeria, and, with the exception of Hammam Rhira and Hammam Meskoutine, are not developed. It is a pity, as they have excellent healing qualities, and those people with rheumatism who have frequented the baths at Hammam Rhira are delighted with the results.

Before leaving this subject we must once more turn our eyes to the Southern Territories, in order not to forget two of the most important industries of the country: the date-palms and the alfa grass.

Unexpectedly the date worthy of exportation thrives only in certain restricted areas where the temperature and rainfall are exactly suited. However, when this occurs the owner of a palmery can count on a very substantial income.

The alfa grass, which grows wild all over the Sersou and Hauts Plateaux, is divided up into concessions, owned chiefly by British firms, and it is exported to be made into paper.

This is already a very dull chapter, and I will not weary the reader with any further dissertation on commerce, but I hope that, after reading this _résumé_ of the products of Algeria, he will realize what a rich country it is, and what a future of prosperity lies before it. The Phœnicians guessed its value; the Romans realized it; the Arabs forgot it all; and the French are beginning to complete what the Romans began. Well may they prosper!