ABSTRACT
In May 1942 the United States Agricultural Mission headed by Twitchell had, after the meeting with Ibn Sa‘ud, gone to Al Kharj, guided by Sheikh ‘Abdullah as-Sulaiman. He had himself started the Al Kharj experiment some years before by importing Iraqi agricultural engineers. An earlier attempt made in ancient days had come to grief because of diminishing water supplies. In January 1945 the Americans lived in a mud-built house near ‘Ain Dhilal‘ where the motor pumps raised water for the irrigation of the neighbouring plain. Now in 1952 the American centre had been moved seven miles away to better soil where two flat plots of mixed loam and sand were being cultivated. Twenty miles to the south-west the third and most fertile plot of all got its water from the Khafs Dughra well. There were scarcely any labourers to be seen in the cultivated fields of Al Kharj.
