Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/135

Rh this class. The rate levied upon the products is nominally one-eighth, but the time of determining the value and the mode of collecting brings it as high as one-fourth or more. The fruit products are valued by the collectors and while yet in blossom, and though the crops may fail, still the taxes must be paid. It often occurs that vineyards and orchards are deserted by their owners in order to get rid of the heavy taxes. The right of collecting "the tithes" on wheat and similar products is sold to parties known as tithers, most cruel and heartless men, and a great terror to the farmers. The tithes are demanded for the simple fact that the ground, though bought with the money of its owner, is regarded as the absolute property of the government; therefore, the former must pay for the privilege of using the ground. According to this principle one cannot turn his own field into a garden or orchard, nor can he build houses upon it, nor even can he sell it, without the official permission of the government. The law is that if a field is not tilled for three successive years the government has the right to confiscate it and sell it to others. Because of the absence of modern machinery and many obstacles in the way, an average farmer can cultivate but ten or twelve acres of land. After hard labor and constant watch over the field from the tenderest growth to the harvest, the fariner is not allowed to use any part of the products until the tither has measured the crop and taken his part. So soon as the threshing is over an agent of the tither puts his stamp all around and over the piles of