Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/1393

 PRODUCTION AND INDUSTRY 1841

general practice being to farm it out to contractors. Experiments have been made in the direction of commuting the tithe to a fixed money payment.

culture is most primitive. The soil for the most part is very fertile ; the principal products are tobacco, cereals of all kinds, cotton, figs, nuts, almouds, grapes, olives, all varieties of fruits. Coffee, madder, opium, gums are largely exported. In 1919 Turkey produced 2,453,680,000 kilos of wheat and 1,669,820,000 kilos of barley. Flour-milling in Smyrna is improved and extended. Coffee is grown in the Hodeida region ; opium is an important crop in Konia. Tobacco is grown both in European and Asiatic Turkey. The principal tobacco districts are Samsun, Bafraaud Charchambe ; in 191S the total tobacco crop amounted to 17,780,882 kilos grown on 55,103 acres. The area in 1919 was 59,943 acres. The principal centres for silk production are Brusa and Constantinople : in 1919 the production of cocoons was estimated at 3,000,000 kilos. The production of olive oil, mainly confined to the Vilayet of Arden, is very important.

The forest laws of the empire are model led on those of France, but restrictive regulations are not enforced, and the country is being rapidly deprived of its timber. About 21 million acres are under forest, of which 3J million acres are in European Turkey. The most wocded Sanjaks are those of Kastamouni (3,290,000 acres), Aidin (2,322,500 acres), Broussa (2,270,000 acres), Bolu (1,500,000 acres,, and Trebizond (1,250,000 aeres. The forests consist of pine, fir, larch, oak, cedar and other timber trees.) Extensive mulberry plantations have been founded both in European and Asiatic Turkey, and about 250,000 plants are annually distributed to the peasants.

Turkey in 1919 had 4.113,000 horned cattle (6,531,927 in 1913); horses, 630,000(1,050,580 in 1913) ; mules, 85,000 (144,600 in 1913) : asses. 825,000 (1,373,700 in 1913) ; sheep, 11,200 (18,721,550 in 1913) ; goats, 2,065,000 (16,463,180 in 1913) ; camels, 95,000(314,000 in 1913).

Mining. — The Turkish provinces, especially those in Asia, are rich in minerals, which are little worked. Chrome ore is worked in Smyrna, Brusa, Adana and Konia. The Government silver mines at Bulgan Maden, Konia, produce annually about 2,600 kilos of silver and 400 tons of silvei- lcad ; zinc is found at Karasu on the Black Sea and in Aidin ; manganese ore in Konia and Aidin ; antimony ore, 308 tons ; copper ore is found in the Armenian Taurus, at Tereboli, near Trebizond, at Arghana Maden, near Diarbckr, said to be one of the largest and most productive mi; the world ; borax from 6,000 to 8,000 tons exported annually from the Marmora ; meerschaum at Eskishehr : chrome at Mersina ; emery at Smyrna, in Aidin, Konia, Adana, and the Archipelago ; asphalt in Syria, and on the Euphrates; coal and lignite (400,000 tons annually) at Heraclea on the Black Sea and 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. There are salt works also at Aleppo, Erzeroum, Sanios. 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 ot Rhodes ; arsenic in Aidin ; iron in Alep]>o and in Kossaro (not worked), in Adana (output. 40,000 tons a year). Near Briissa quarries of lithographic stone are now extensively worked. There is a good deal of brass-turning ami beating of copper into utensils for household purposes.

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