Page:Syria and Palestine WDL11774.pdf/119

 and about Lake Hule (Merom) could only be reclaimed by more elaborate and costly works.

(c) Forestry

It has been estimated that 88 per cent. of the forests of Turkey are State-owned, and except in the Lebanon there is certainly little private property in the forests of Syria. According to statistics of the year 1907-8 the vilayets of Aleppo, Damascus, and Beirut contained only 2,000 hectares (about 4,950 acres) of privately-owned forest; on the other hand, in the Lebanon, which those statistics do not include, the forests are entirely owned either by private persons or by village communities. With regard to the present extent of forests, official statistics for 1915 assign to the vilayet of Aleppo 135,000 hectares, to Damascus 61,000, to Beirut 55,000, to the Lebanon 60,000, a total of 311,000 hectares (1,200 sq. miles). Some reduction has no doubt taken place in consequence of the heavy demand for timber and fuel occasioned by the war. The 1907-8 statistics, which do not seem very trustworthy, represent the forests of the Aleppo vilayet as consisting of 53 per cent. of pine or fir, and 34 per cent. of oak; those of the Beirut vilayet of 75 per cent. of pine or fir, and 21 per cent. of oak; and those of Damascus entirely of oak. In the Lebanon also pine and oak predominate. Oaks, of which there are several varieties, tend to be rather stunted. Other trees found are carob, pistachio, sumach, cypress, plane, poplar, and lastly eucalyptus, which has been planted in large groves by Jewish settlers, especially about Kaisarie. The cedars of Lebanon are reduced to a few small groups.

The forests have been subject to Government control since 1870, and two schools, an upper and a lower, from which the local inspectors, keepers, and other officials are drawn, have been maintained at Constantinople. These officials, however, were more interested in increasing revenues than in arresting the advance of