One would naturally suppose that a country like this would be barren and worthless; but not so with Palestine. These mountain ridges are of a lime-stone formation. In the summer, the climate is exceedingly oppressive; the rays of the sun are almost like streams of fire. The thermometer rises in the day to 126 or 128 degrees. The nights, even in midsummer, are cool and pleasant. At noon day the mercury registers 128 degrees, and at night it falls to forty and forty-five degrees. In the day, when the lime-stone rocks become heated, they expand; and at night, when cooled, they contract. They continue to expand and contract until after awhile they fall to pieces—disintegration takes place. This begets a great quantity of finely pulverized lime-stone dust, which is extremely rich and fertilizing. Nature, with her ever watchful care, has so arranged these hills as to enable them to catch, retain, and appropriate most of this fertilizing dust. The hills are naturally terraced. From base to summit we see one terrace rising above another. They look like huge steps placed there to enable giants to ascend. If the people would only build up the defective places in these terraces, they would catch practically all of the dust caused by the decaying rocks, and the country would become richer and richer as the years pass by. Palestine is still the “land of the vine and fig-tree.” Every hillside is garnished over with olive trees, as also with figs, dates, palms, and pomegranates. The decaying rocks feed the hungry trees they bear. This suggests a very important question: What do the people of Palestine live on? Now, as in Joshua’s time, “the tree of the field is man’s life” (Deut. 20:19). The people live largely on fruits. Olives, especially, are the salvation of that country. The people here eat the olive as we eat peaches. They also pickle them; but the olive is chiefly valuable for the excellent oil it yields. Olive oil is the only seasoning these people have. Figs and dates are likewise plentiful at all seasons of the year, in one form or another. The grapes of the Holy Land are especially fine. They are abundant in quantity, large in size, and deliciously flavored. There is a grape here that makes very fine raisins, and another that yields a superior quality of wine. Wine here is usually mild. It is also plentiful, and is used freely. There are many valleys in this country that are as rich and fertile as the alluvial deposits of the Nile. Such, for instance, is the plain of Esdraelon and the valley around Lake Huleh. These garden spots are annually sown in wheat. To be sure, the yield is not large. We can not expect it to be large when we remember that these sons of idleness use the same rude implements of agriculture that their fathers used three thousand years ago. A camel, or a yoke of oxen, a forked stick, and a half-naked Arab, make a first class plow team for Palestine.