FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 119 



The peasants are as a rule very poor. Their industry rarely succeeds 

 in gaining for them much accumulation for old age. 



IN TURKEY. 



In Turke}^ the land is divided into three classes: That devoted to the 

 support of the mosques, the crown lands, and lands held in freehold. 

 The first two claims comprise, perhaps, two-thirds of the territory. The 

 tenants pay for the occupancy of them. The laws of ownership and 

 transfer of land are complicated, and many disputes about titles arise. 

 The freeholds are small, usually running from five to forty acres. 

 Formerly villages had commons and forests, which rapacious officials 

 have now seized. Farms are sometimes tilled on shares, the occupant 

 furnishing cattle, seed, labor and taxes. 



The poor farmer, who is cruelly plundered by the tax gatherer, is also 

 often burdened by having troops quartered on him, and by being obliged 

 to furnish transportation for soldiers and military stores. The Ar- 

 menian peasant, in addition to bearing the above burdens, is frequently 

 robbed by Kurdish chiefs, who pounce down from their mountain homes 

 on the villages in the plain. Frequently the Armenian village pays a 

 regular contribution to one Kurdish chief, who then undertakes to defend 

 it against the depredations of other chiefs. Of course the peasant's con- 

 ditions of life are hard, and poverty is widespread. 



CHIEF CROPS. 



The crops are the cereals with which we are familiar, and in some 

 places rice, and in many provinces tobacco. This last article is a mo- 

 nopoly of the government, which buys the whole crop and forbids farm- 

 ers to sell any part of their crop to any one but the regularly appointed 

 agents. Mulberry trees are also cultivated for feeding silk worms. 



The methods and tools of the peasant are much like those of the 

 Chinese. The grub hoe, the antiquated plow, the rude harrow, are the 

 implements. Irrigation is v>idely used. The grain is threshed by the 

 tread of animals over the threshing floor of clay. One does not see our 

 modern machines, except on a few great estates near Constantinople, 

 Some regard is paid to rotation of crops. Manure is scanty; sometimes 

 the land is fertilized only by the sheep roaming over it in spring and in 

 autumn. 



Of their fruits^, the cherries and straw^berries are excellent; the apples 

 and peaches are inferior to ours. The figs and grapes are very abundant 

 and good. 



The Turks use animals far more than the Chinese. The Arab horse 

 and croisses of that stock are everywhere to be found. The oxen are 

 strong and vigorous and much beloved by their owners. Sheep are raised 

 in vast numbers, in Asia Minor the fat-tailed sheep. Goats are raised 

 in large numbers, and camels are used to a considerable extent. 



The agricultural resources of the empire are great. Under a better 

 government and with better methods and implements they might be 

 vastly increased. 



OBSTACLES TO SUCCESSFUL, AGRICULTURE. 



The drawbacks to success in agriculture are similar in China and in 



