lo Aug.. 1908.] Insect Pests in Foreign Lands. 4^9 



morning of the ^yd. Soon after my arrival I found that I could not 

 get a steamer till the 30th, so called upon the British Consul, who ver\ 

 kmdly gave me letters to several people interested in agriculture. At 

 the invitation of Dr. Thompson, a British merchant interested in wine 

 culture, and having large vineyards at Bolandjik, about 12 miles out 

 in Asiatic Turkey. I spent an afternoon at his orchards and saw the methods 

 used there and in some Turkish vineyards adjoining. At one time thev 

 made a large quantity of wine, but owing to the bad times that came to 

 the Armenians, the chief wine drinkers in Turkev, thev have given up 

 making wine, and now sell the grapes for eating. All the orchards 

 through Turkey have been more or less destroved bv the phylloxera, 

 which appeared about 25 vears ago. Dr. Thompson's vines, now twelve 

 years old, are all grafted on American stocks, and are some of the largest 

 vines I have seen. They are simply staked, and tied up at the top. Most 

 of the Turkish wine-growers graft on a native grape that grows wild in 

 the country. 



With a letter of introduction, I called upon Monsieur C. de Ravmond, 

 Inspector, Technique de la Dette Publique Ottomane, who has charge of 

 the work done in connexion with helping the vine and silk industries. 

 Mr. Ra\mond informed me that they distributed cuttings and mulberry 

 plants free to encourage the industry, and the introduction of silk has 

 increased in Turkey in Europe from 1,871,739 kilos of cocoons in 1902, 

 to 3,623,145 kilos in 1907. A kilo is equal to 2 lbs. 3^ ozs. Wine-making is 

 in a very bad w'ay, but the Smyrna raisin industry is one of the big indus- 

 tiies. This Department also deals with Forestry and Fisheries, but does no 

 re-planting, simply collecting the licence-money from the timber getters. 



In the fruit markets, one of the sights of Stamboul, there are a great 

 many varieties of oranges and other citrus fruit offered for sale, and I 

 am informed that the commission agents fix the selling price to the retailers 

 every morning. The Jaffa orange is a very large long orange with an 

 extremely thick skin, but has a very fine flavour and very few pips; 

 buying from the basket-men thev vary from id. to lid. A verv fine 

 blood orange, and a fine round orange with a thinnish skin come from 

 Syria. From Syria also comes a very large deep-coloured mandarin, 

 v.hich has a very loose skin, and is as sour as a lemon. These I am 

 told are toiled in sugar and made into sweetmeats. Large quantities 

 of the lemons, and some oranges also come from Sicih and Italv. I 

 saw no signs of fruit fly among them, but scale was prettv thick upon some 

 Syrian ones, Aspidiotus hederi. and Chianasfis citri. Apples are scarce 

 and very poor at this time ot the vear. Thev are chiefly grown at Amasa 

 in Turkev in Asia, and are a small red varietv. Bananas are practically 

 unknown in the markets, but some come to the fruit shops from Egvpt, 

 and are a luxury. The vegetables are very fine and of many kinds. 

 Nearly all are grown in the Asiatic side of the Bosphorus, while dried 

 fruits and all kinds of nuts, grain, and legumes, are very abundant and 

 cheap. There was almost a total failure of the harvest in Asia Minor 

 last season, and rain is wanted very badlv now. All the vineyards are 

 dug by hand. The Turkish labourer uses a verv heav\ fork with two 

 straight prongs and a long handle, and two of them working together 

 turn over a great mass of soil at each dig. Thev work from 7 in the 

 morning to 6 in the evening, and get is. 46.. a day. 



I leave here to-morrow at 4 p.m., in the M.^I.S. Co. boat to Cvprus, 

 and .should reach there on thr 4th or ^th of Ma\ . and leave there a week 

 later for Cairo. 



