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principal beverages of the country. The grapes are very sweet and even at this late date I can buy them in a state of good preservation but somewhat dried up. They taste more like raisins than any thing else – so sweet are they. Citrons and melons and such things grow in great abundance with little care.

But everything has to be irrigated and the ditches have [?] [canals?] in size. [So?] great is the drain [on?] the [river?] that it has been known to go dry down here. In fact such was the case last year and consequently the [crops?] failed and when at last the water came down the [river?] there was such universal