30 LETTERS ON AGRICULTURE. 



There are very few native inhabitants, but these few are sober, 

 and, as Orientals go. industrious; and yet this whole region is almost 

 as barren as the desert of Sahara. 



The recent discoveries of oil on the Persian side of the Karun River, 

 one of the tributaries of the Shat-el-Arab, are possibly the beginning 

 of a new era for Mesopotamia, and the Anatolian railway through Asia 

 Minor to Bagdad, for which German}' holds the concession, although 

 looked upon only as a very remote possibility by the white residents, 

 may open up this neglected corner of Arabia to planters with large 

 resources. 



The concession for the exploitation of the oil recently discovered at 

 Kasr-i-Sherin was granted by Persia to an English millionaire mine 

 owner, and it is interesting to note that the new oil fields lie in dis- 

 puted territory between Arabia and Persia. If the borings, which 

 are being made b}- an American expert, should prove the existence of 

 really extensive oil tields, Turkey may put in a claim for the territory 

 and the matter become subject for an international dispute. From an 

 agricultural standpoint these great valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates 

 will have to be reckoned with as a future center of production of grain, 

 cotton, dried fruits, wool, and live stock. They are capable of pro- 

 ducing all of these in quantities only limited by the amount of water 

 which the river can supply. 



The Euphrates is said to be a sluggish stream, with many sand 

 banks and comparatively little water, but the Tigris is a river varying 

 in width from 250 to 500 yards, in its narrowest banks only reachino- 

 50 yards, and flowing at a rate of from six-tenths of a mile to 4 miles 

 an hour. 



America's interests in the gulf are represented by less than a score 

 of missionaries, whose medical work, whatever the Mohammedans may 

 think of their missionary work, is highly spoken of. 



There are good opportunities for American trade in wind-mills, 

 farm machinery, piece goods, etc., and through the efforts of Mr. 

 Hurner, our vice-consul at Badgad. a contract is being made by which 

 an American company is to build a steel bridge across the Tigris to 

 take the place of the present most dilapidated pontoon affair of almost 

 pre-Babvlonian simplicity. 



Whether Americans will ever take a hand in the opening up of this 

 wonderfully fertile region or not. they can not fail to be interested 

 in it as a country of immense agricultural wealth and a possible future 

 competitor in the markets of the world. 



The principal plant industry of the country, the culture of the 

 date, is dependent in a measure upon the American market. w T hich is 

 the biggest buyer of the best quality of this fruit. 



