214 HENRY HILL GOODELL 



tion of different kinds of sweetmeats. As food for horses it 

 is exported in large quantities into the south of Europe. 

 Into this country and Great Britain it finds its way, under 

 the name of locust beans or St. John's bread, receiving both 

 names from the ancient tradition that they are the " locusts ' 

 which formed the food of John the Baptist in the wilderness. 

 The tree is cultivated extensively in all the countries bor- 

 dering the shores of the Mediterranean, both for its food- 

 producing qualities and its wood, which is hard and sus- 

 ceptible of a fine polish. In size and manner of growth it 

 resembles an apple tree, but is more bushy and thick-set. 

 It yields a prolific harvest, and it is not unusual to see a tree 

 bearing over half a ton of green pods. 



One other tree deserves mention, not on account of its 

 food-producing qualities, but for its importance in a com- 

 mercial point of view. It is the shrub oak, — the Quercus 

 cegilops, — which, growing wild on the mountain slopes and 

 rugged steeps, where nothing else will grow, gives employ- 

 ment to hundreds of men, women, and children, who, in the 

 season, go out to gather the acorns. These are brought 

 down in sacks to the nearest seaport, whence they are ex- 

 ported, thousands of tons annually, under the name of 

 "valonia," to be used in the tanneries of Europe. They 

 readily command eighty to ninety dollars a ton; and, from 

 the seaport towns of Smyrna and the islands adjacent, 

 forty thousand tons have been sent to England alone in a 

 single year. 



The cereals of the empire do not differ much from ours. 

 The exports are barley, maize, and wheat. Rye, oats, and 

 millet give good results, and there are various other seeds 

 of good native use. Looking only at the soil, climate, in- 



