LETTER PROM FROM PALESTINE having now had the pleasure of seeing some portions of this land of promise I 1 thought perhaps it would interest your readers to have a few items concerning the present condition of palestine its ite people and their progress ress during our rou nd trip from haifa which is located nearly on the northwest point of mount carmel and back to our starting point we traveled through portions of the landmarks of asher zebulon issachar Issac bar ephraim Ephr alm Be benjamin Djamin judah and dan and enjoyed many pleasant thoughts in the contemplation n that god was about to remember his covenant with W ith the fathers aud and to restore it to the rightful heirs this land shows many signs of a once high and successful cultivation the mountains of babaria sam ia and judea especially bear the marks of once being very fruitful as one sees that every ide hill with sufficient earth for cultivation at one time or other has been terraced from top to bottom judging these terraces from the present mode of cultivating the hills one can imagine the whole of the mountains covered with grape vines with olive and fig trees here and there inter planted together with various other plants and trees which could grow on the hillside hill side without irrigation these terraces are very necessary in in this country where both the early and later rains are rather copious by these means the earth which would otherwise be carried away by the heavy wet is held back as well as a goodly portion of the moisture and the rocks that are gathered out too are made to serve for a base wall for the terraces A mountain properly arranged and the blessings of of god upon it wasa was a great possession possession in the day when israel nourished here where tore fore the prophets prophet in looking forward in the worlds history said to israel thou shall yet plant alues upon the mountains of samaria the pl antera shall plant and shall eat them as common things this was great comfort to the afflicted people and they will yet come and sing in the height of zion and flow together to the goodness of the lord for wheat and for wine and for oil and andhor for the young of the flock and of the herd and their souls shall be as a matured garden and they shall not sorrow any more at all 1 the country here hija has about the same dry season as utah although it is warmer by several degrees in the summer yet there is but little drought compared with the latter A heavy dew falls at once after sundown which seems to keep up the moisture necessary for vegetation the country as a rule is pool poorly ly sullied supplied with flowing streams whole hole villages are supplied with rain water which Is carefully kept in large bottle shaped cisterns new hewn n out of the solid rock many of the old cisterns are being cleaned out and during the rainy season ditches are made to convey water to the cisterns it need hardly be said that the water thus obtained is not very agreeable there is much fine land lying almost idle in galilee Gal between nazareth and biberias Tib erias much excellent country can be found the valley of jezreel may also similarly be mentioned but teim as in almost all cases here is but poorly cultivated the fellars fellahs fel lahs or formers farmers don dont donit it seem to understand how to till to ad vantage advantage and perhaps the mode of taxation i 1 e by farming the taxes I 1 also tends to discourage the people by this method of taxing the tax farmer often takes a fifth in the place of a tenth which is his due the far farmer liker is in the meantime pre prevented vented from touching his crop until the tee taxes are collected then further distress Is imposed by speculators purchasing large tracts of land from the government in buying the land they get the people as a free gift because where would they go if ejected hence hance they remain there and live in a starving condition upon what is left after the tax farmer and the speculator have got what they want the sultan haa bought jezreel and a large country around the old capital so that his majesty seems to think the scheme a good one the present inhabitants are rill cipully arabs and bedouins Bedou ins are a few thousand christians and some thousand jews but they ON far in the minority As a rule WO w generally ask what are the jews doing toward obtaining the land the jews or rather the greater number of them do not f rm nn bw but live in jerusalem tiberius and a few other places chiefly the support of their raier richer brethren on the sou southeast theist part of mount carmel the jewish settlement of 8 89 maxia maria is located it has a grand krai appearance in the distance and is said to do very well now there may be reasons for their not branching ont the jewa are yet hated to an unreason unreasonable ablO extent here by all classes in jem jam salena salem they are confined to a veil small quarter and their industry 10 be being ing looked 00 ked u upon pon with great creat SUO P biclon clon be because 0 a u be they work cheaply H hence e c e t they he y a are r about to come va disrepute with the people in toa abio way they have likewise been prevell pro ted from settling here of late years owing to the fact that although they left other countries dissat dissatisfied IsM they still kept their former citi citizen zeo ship for protection after settling wj 10 this place this simply com the turkish difficulties so they the aff were only allowed to land as all grims bound to leave the country aina in a specified time it is now ru mored here that this difficulty 10 s removed by the jews paying the handsome sum of fifty million francs franca for the privilege of entering to settle will doubt ba to radical changes no effected before the real gathering takes place something more certain und and stable must rep replace lace the CD present doubtful state of afra affairs irs JL A government opposed to all PS and which only reaches out wa for prey cannot certainly be a power to protect a downtrodden rate race in ILI ob on calming a foothold in the land of or their promise the turkish mission is moving v go slowly but we hope surely maw many of our brethren interested in its P wondered at v ito gress have perhaps stubborn refusal to shine out briggi brig ly jy but there are many reasons by much has to be learned W the elders formerly with a ian language aage not no acquired ang and there are publications for distribution to assiat a in combating the many wilful ito lar so studiously circulated by y the row sion aries of so called christian b rist laupp a denominations still we ha have membership of about twenty witia all 7 four elders from zion and a ea w A local force in the field here palestine the prospects at are e not very good at present but in ia asia sia ginor AH be u they are better the armen armenians lang ians and will wi ing open to conviction to hear bear and investigate AWO it that people we have already levei good saints F F HAIFA march 1889