582 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



i-VEKYDAY LIFE IN PERSIA 



Upper The distribution of flour. Note the wooden bar to the scales and the wooden 



shovel. Close attention is given to the weigher. 

 Middle A street scene. The donkey is loaded with thorn-bushes to be used for fuel. 

 Lower Close-up of a threshing machine. T^e revolving cross-shaft holds the chisel- 

 shaped iron knives that cut up the straw. 



devastation upon agriculture and 

 so upon the prosperity of a coun- 

 try. And this "native fuel" as 

 manure cakes are called, is one of 

 the chief fuels used in the bak- 

 eries, both public and private. 



There is one great lesson to be 

 learned from the fuel situation in 

 West Persia, and that is the ex- 

 treme to which the people of a 

 country are forced to go when 

 their forests have been destroyed. 

 Everything in the way of fuel is 

 burned up. The powdered char- 

 coal in the bottom of the bags or 

 containers is dampened and press- 

 ed together and used for fuel. The 

 trees scarcely begin to shed their 

 leaves before small boys shake 

 them to hasten their fall or even 

 climb up into the trees and pull 

 the leaves off with their hands. 

 Out in the country not a thing is 

 left, in the way of fuel, except in 

 very out of the way sections and 

 in places where constant guardian- 

 ship is exerted over the trees or 

 where some religious element pro- 

 tects trees from the wood-hungry 

 people. And it is there that the 

 absence of wood strikes one most. 

 There are no fences, no woodlots 

 worthy of the name, and the fact 

 that the country is in a state of 

 wood famine is constantly borne 

 in upon the visitor. If the people 

 of America could only spend a 

 week traveling through West Per- 

 sia there would be an entirely dif- 

 ferent degree of interest in the 

 maintenance and enlargement of 

 our forest resources here in this 

 country. 



Another use that wood is put to 

 is in the construction of houses. 

 But here again the wood famine 

 stares us in the face. In the 

 United States all of the cheap 

 houses are made of wood of some 

 sort, and in almost every type of 

 building wood is used in some way. 

 But in West Persia common adobe 

 mud used in bricks or in the 

 mass makes up most of the build- 

 ing material, wood being used only 

 in the doors, windows and the 

 framework of the roof. The cov- 

 ering of the roof is a thick layer 

 of well pounded mud. In the win- 

 ter, however, every fall of snow 

 must be shoveled of? at once, for 



