ACTUAL FIGURES AND A TWO-STORY AGRICULTURE
Of only one regularly planted carob orchard have I had an absolutely measured record of which I am reasonably sure. The owner was an educated Frenchman, M. Chouillou, living a few miles up the river from Bougie on the northern coast of Algeria. His trees, which were twenty years old, were planted on well-drained alluvium. They were interplanted with grapes. There was still almost a full stand of grapes. Often only one vine was missing where the carob tree stood. From the sixteenth to the twentieth year in addition to a full crop of grapes this orchard produced on the average eight hundred and seventy-five pounds of carob beans per acre. The selling price was the same as that of corn, and taking fifty-six pounds to the bushel it figures up to 15.6 bushels per acre and compares favorably with 19.7 bushels of corn reported by the United States Department of Agriculture for the five years, 1921-25,
fifty to five hundred years, and each tree brings in one to eight cwt. a year according to the age of the tree and fertility of the ground.
"After a careful inquiry in the matter we find that these trees yield seventy to eighty cwt. in an acre each season, and this quantity is considered out here quite normal.
"Trees which are grown in fields yield much more fruit than those on the mountains, and we very often see large trees yielding nine to ten cwt.
"The quality of carobs produced in the fields is much inferior to those on the mountains.
"It occurs that the crop is sometimes less than the usual outcome, but at any rate there is always a crop. We do not take into consideration the large trees which yield more than two cwts., and we can assure you that there are farmers who earn more than one hundred cwt. per acre every year.
"P.S. One cwt, is equal to one hundred and twelve pounds.
Letter from P. J. Louisides, Larnaca. Cyprus, May 22, 1913:
Locust tree, Supplementary Report submitted by U. S. Consul at Beirut, dated April 24, 1913. "The annual rainfall of the region in Cyprus producing the locust beans varies from 21.88 to 27.25 inches. As we have already said, the locust tree can be planted in any land except in marshy places. It grows in rocky places and in limestone too and withstands the driest weather.
"The locust tree in Cyprus is found self-planted on unplowed rough land."
