Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1434

 1312. TURKEY AKD TRIBUTARY STATES

peasants. The production of oil of roses is encouraged by the Government, who supply stocks of rose-plants to the peasantry. In cotton-growing regions the Government distribute also cotton seed of good quality. The cotton crop of the Province of Adana amounted to 72,000 bales in 1910, of which about 6,000 bales consisted of long libre (American) cotton and the balance of short fibre (native) cotton.

In Asiatic Turkey, 16,567,775 acres are under cultivation as follows: — 13,689,474 acres under cereals ; fruit and vegetables, 473,085 acres ; industrial products (cotton, iiax, etc.), 779,982 acres; and vines, 1,213,530 acres.

In Palestine an interesting feature in agricultural development is the establishment of Jewish and German colonies ; of the former near Jaffa there are 26 with a total population of about 7,885, cultivating more than 94,900 acres, the chief produce being cereals, cotton, and various fruits. These colonies consist mainly of Russian Jews, some being maintained by private enterprise, others by the Chovawe-Zion Association, and others again (originally founded by Baron E. de Rothschild) by the Jewish Colonization Association. The 4 German colonies in the Jafta region are also mainly agricultural. A very comprehensive survey has been in the course of execution during the last two years in Mesopotamia with a view to the irrigation of huge tracts of land which have lain Avaste for centuries but which, bear clear evidence of having been artiticially irrigated in ancient times. The irrigation scheme is almost complete.

The Turkish provinces, especially those in Asia, are rich in minerals, which are little worked. In 1906 a new mining laAV came into force. Chrome ore is exported from Turkish ports, mostly from Europe and Marmora ; there are 3 chrome mines near Mersina worked by primitive methods ; the Govern- ment silver mines at Bulgan Maden, Konia, produce annually about 2,600 kilos of silver and 400 tons of silver-lead ; Zinc is found at Karasu on the Black Sea and in Aidiu ; manganese ore (3,000 tons) at Salonica, in Konia and Aidin ; antimony ore, 308 tons ; copper ore is found in the Armenian Taurus, at Tereboli, near Trebizond, at Arghana Maden near Diarbekr, said to be one of the largest and most productive mines in the world and in the Xanthi district on the Dedeagatch-Salonica rail- way ; borax from 6,000 to 8,000 tons exported annually from Marmora; meerschaum at Eskishehr ; argentiferous pyrites, at Salonica ; chrome at Mersina; emery at Smyrna, in Aidin, Konia, Adana, and the Archipelago; asphalt, at Vanina, in Syria, and on the Euphrates ; coal and lignite (400,000 tons annually) at Heraclea on the Black Sea ; also in the Smyrna district ; petroleum in the Middle Tigris valley and various isolated places in Asia Minor, also on the north coast of the Sea of Marmora. The salt mines at Salif in the Yemen yield a large output. In 1911-12 the quantity sold amounted to 346,625 metric tons, of which 261,947 tons were sold in Turkey and the rest abroad. There are salt works also at Aleppo, Erzeroum, Samos, Crete, and other places. Both gold and silver are found in the Smyrna sanjak ; gold and silver and argentiferous lead at Bulghar Maden (Konia) ; mercury near Smyrna and at Sisma near Konia ; kaolin in the island of Rhodes ; arsenic in Aidin ; iron in Alei)po and in Kossaro (not worked), in Adana (output, 40,000 tons a year). Many of these minerals are scarcely worked. Near Brussa quarries of lithographic stone are now extensively worked. There is a good deal of brass-turning and beating of copper into utensils for household purposes.

. The fisheries of Turkey are important ; the fisheries of the Bosphorus alone represent a value of upwards of 250,000?., though the fishery methods