GRADING PAPER-SHELL PECANS IN A COÖPERATIVE PECAN WAREHOUSE AT ALBANY By virtue of the fact that the fruit from 70,000 acres of nut groves is marketed through Albany, this thriving city proclaims itself the "World's Pecan Center." Albany, as an additional bid for distinction, a few months ago received the grand award "for best accomplishments among 400 cities of the United States in fire prevention." For your personal success I have no fear; I know you to be industrious and enterprising, but what such boys as and and many others will do who think labor to be a disgrace, I do not know. I remember one time at Cuthbert that the young ladies laughed at me because I carried a glue pot across the yard. Those young ladies will have to change their opinions ere they can expect to get along under the new order of things, for labor is bound to be respected. I had completed my march through Georgia 60 years after the events which brought forth that prophecy and admonition. It seems to me, in the light of what I have seen, that Georgians are utilizing with both industry and vision their State's resources of incomparable wealth and infinite diversity. "Empire State of the South" is no longer merely a high-sounding phrase, but is becoming once more an actuality. UNCOVERING THE SPHINX some of the mountain of sand that 1. ift Publishers' Photo Service The feet of the mysterious colossus of the Nile are now on exhibition for the first time in forty years. The Egyptian Government has undertaken the Herculean task of clearing away Looking Down Upon the Holy Land During an Air Journey of Two and a Half Hours from Cairo to Jerusalem BY BRIGADIER General P. R. C. GROVES, C. B., C. M. G., D. S. O., AND MAJOR J. R. MCCRINDLE, O. B. E., M. C. E GYPT is destined to become one of the most important air-traffic centers in the Eastern Hemisphere, for Cairo will be the junction of two great airways-that from Europe to the East via Italy, Crete, Solum, Cairo, Bagdad, Basra, and thence along the northern shore of the Persian Gulf to Karachi, and that which will cross Africa almost in a straight line from the Cape to Cairo. Both of these air routes have been flown over, the former on numerous occasions, the latter only twice, although it was surveyed and sites for its principal landing grounds were selected as far back as 1919. The first flight was made in 1920, the second early in 1926, when the return trip from the Cape to Cairo was made in ten and one-half days. The Cairo-Bagdad section of the eastern route has been in regular operation by the British Royal Air Force for several years. The service, which is by airplane, is at present fortnightly and is maintained for the use of government officials and to carry important mails. When commercial aviation has established a base in Egypt, the prospect for the air tourist will be alluring. In addition to the romantic air journey to the East (the route as far as Karachi will be taken over early next year by the subsidized British air combine known as Imperial Airways) he will be able to fly southward up the Nile by seaplane to Luxor, Philæ, and Khartum; or westward to the historic oases in the Libyan Desert, or northeast across the Desert of Sinai to Palestine (see map, page 315). CAIRO TO JERUSALEM IN 150 MINUTES This last trip promises to be popular, for the airplane offers very marked advantages over existing means of transport between Egypt and Palestine. The journey by the Desert Railway is long and tedious, and the motorist is handicapped by a shortage of fuel and repair depots and by a scarcity of good automobile roads. But by air Jerusalem is only two and a half hours distant from Cairo by the normal route, which is via Ismailia to the north shore of Sinai and thence along the coast. Along this route there are numerous excellent landing grounds. In Palestine there are good landing fields near each of the seagirt cities on the border of the maritime plain. Jerusalem, although it stands in a limestone wilderness among the Judean hills, possesses an airdrome. It is also possible to land near the Sea of Galilee, at one spot on the shores of the Dead Sea, and at Jericho, which, it will be remembered, is far down in the deep valley of the Jordan. The principal airport in Egypt will be Heliopolis, a suburb of Cairo, situated on the edge of the desert. The airdrome at El Kantara, on the east bank of the Suez Canal, will probably be the point of departure for passengers and mails arriving at Port Said by sea and proceeding to India and the Far East by airplane. Ismailia has already been selected as an airship station and a mooring mast is in process of erection there. But both El Kantara and Ismailia are far from the capital and possess no hotel accommodations. Heliopolis, which is already designated as the northern terminus of the Cape-toCairo route, is also the most convenient center for the air tourist who wishes to make Egypt his base. Here, within a few minutes' drive of the capital, Nature has provided, in the shape of a vast gravelly plain, one of the finest airdromes in the LOOKING DOWN ON THE PYRAMIDS OF GIZEH AND THE SPHINX AT SUNSET FROM A HEIGHT OF 4,000 FEET Above the farthest pyramid in the photograph is the road to Cairo, terminating in the Mena House Hotel. In line with and just beyond the point of the shadow of the middle pyramid is the Sphinx (see, also, page 312). world. It is already well supplied with workshops and hangars, for it served as headquarters for four training squadrons during the World War. "A CITY OF MARBLE SET IN A GARDEN" As we rise from this field a wonderful panorama opens up the great white city of Cairo, with its innumerable domes and minarets; the majestic Nile, snaking away southward into the desert and northward into the Delta; and the Delta itself, emerald green, studded with brown, mudbuilt little villages and intersected by a perfect spider's web of tiny canals. The clear line of demarcation between desert and Delta is striking and the contrast is very beautiful. Indeed, the whole color scheme of the land of the Pharaohs, viewed from an altitude of 6,000 or 8,000 feet above Cairo, is perhaps unique. First, the city, which might be made of marble, set in the apex of an immense fan-shaped garden, the Delta. This in turn is inclosed by a desert, which appears as a patchwork of soft shades in which golden brown, pearl gray, and saffron predomi nate. This dappled wilderness of sand and rock stretches into infinite distance, but never to a clearly defined skyline, for the junction of earth and sky is hidden by a bank of blue haze into which the Nile disappears as a faintly gleaming silver thread. Twenty minutes' flight northeastward THE TERRITORY OBSERVED IN THE AUTHORS' FLIGHT OVER EGYPT, SINAI, AND PALESTINE At the left is a more detailed map of Palestine, lying between the Mediterranean and the Valley of the Jordan. brings the Suez Canal into view. From the air it looks like a narrow blue ribbon stretched across the face of the desert. The azure patches through which it passes are the lakes-Balah, Timsah, and the Great and Small Bitter. Timsah was once a crocodile-haunted swamp; hence its name, which is Arabic for crocodile; the others were small salt marshes; but all are now merely extensive pools of sea water filling hollows in the sand. Ismailia, where there is an excellent airdrome, is built on the northern shore of Timsah. It is the headquarters of the Canal administration and is a well-laidout little town, bowered in green, with pleasant gardens and shady walks bordering the lake. THE SUEZ CANAL SEEN FROM THE AIR It is worth while to circle here and take in the view. Below us lies the narrow waterway which connects East and West; passing through it are craft of every description-passenger liners, easily recognized by their long expanse of snowy decks or, if it be summer, by their great spread of awnings; ocean tramps, grimy looking, even from a height of 6,000 feet; busy tugs trailing long black plumes of smoke, and tiny white launches. The fan of ripples and the wake made by each of these craft stand out clearly. The lakes are dotted with the sails of Arab fishing boats. Eastward the barren waste of Sinai reaches to the limit of vision. To the west the Egyptian desert extends to a dark belt, the Delta. Northward one can see the wide sweep of the Bay of Tina (Tineh), the nearest part of the Mediterranean. Far away to the south lies a pale-blue shadow, the Gulf of Suez. SALT DEPOSITS RESEMBLE VAST SNOWDRIFTS For the next 70 miles the course is northeast across an undulating expanse of opalescent sand. Despite the sand, this area, between Ismailia and the Bardawil Peninsula, is not waterless. When flying over it you note here and there small oases of palms which nestle in the deeper hollows among sand dunes. Some of these oases are marked on the map, their names prefixed by the word Bir, which is Arabic for well. The Bardawil Peninsula, which we skirt as we near the sea, presents a remarkable sight from the air. It incloses |