lated Old World is widely distributed in mountainous areas. In
Germany, where it is nearly identical with the culture of the vine, it
is found along the steep slopes overlooking the valley of the Moselle
and the Rhine; also in the Vosges Mountains, the Black Forest and the
Swabian Jura, to the limited altitude in which the vine will flourish in
these northern regions. In the Alps it is widespread, and not confined
to the culture of the vine. The traveler passing along the upper Rhone
through the sunny Canton of Valais follows these terraced fields almost
as far as Fiesch (altitude 3458 feet), beyond which agriculture proper
becomes more and more restricted on account of the elevation, and passes
rapidly into the mere hay-making of a pastoral community. Between Leak
and Sierre, not only the mountain sides, but also the steep gravel hills
constituting the old terminal moraine deposited by the receding Rhone
glacier across the valley floor, are terraced to their very tops.

Terrace cultivation prevails in the mountains of Italy; it is utilized
not only for the vine, but for olives, maize, oats, hemp, rye and flax.
On the gentler declivities of the Apennines, the terraced walls are
wider apart and lower than on the steep slopes of the Ligurian Apennines
and along the Riviera of the Maritime Alps, where the mountains rise
abruptly from the margin of the sea.[1268] Careful and laborious terrace
cultivation has produced in Italy a class of superior gardeners. The
Genoese are famous for their skill in this sort of culture. The men from
the Apennine plateau of the Abruzzi readily find positions in the
lowlands as expert gardeners.[1269]

[Sidenote: Terrace culture of the Saracens.]

The Saracens of Spain in the tenth century converted every mountain
slope into a succession of green terraces. They built walls of heavy
masonry, and brought water, loam, and fertilizing materials from great
distances. The slopes of Granada back of Malaga and Almeria were covered
with vineyards. Every foot of land susceptible of cultivation was turned
to account, every drop of water from the ill-timed winter rains was
conserved for the growing season. The application of intelligence and
labor to tillage enabled the Hispano-Arab provinces to support a dense
population.[1270] These Saracen cultivators had come from the severest
training school in all Eurasia. Where the arid tableland of Arabia is
buttressed on the southwestern front by high coast rang