138 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. Part I 



Sect. I. Of the present State of Agricxdture in Asia. 



859. The agricvJttire of Asia is of a very different character from that of Europe, 

 owing chiefly to the great difference of climate, and partly to the difference of civili- 

 sation. The culture of this division of the globe is chiefly of two kinds, water culture 

 and pasturage. Very little can be done without artificial watering, except in the 

 northern and mountainous parts, where the climate resembles that of Europe. Even 

 the palm and other fruit trees are watered in some parts of Persia and Arabia, and 

 several fruit trees are regularly irrigated in India. The grand bread corn of Asia is rice, 

 a watered grain ; and the most valuable fruits, those of the palm family ; the most 

 useful agricultural labourer is the ox, and his species are also the most valuable as pastur- 

 age animals. 



SuBSECT. 1. Of the present State of Agriculture in Asiatic Turkey. 



860. Asiatic Turkey extends from the Archipelago 1050 miles to Ararat in Persia on 

 the east, and from the Euphrates 1100 miles to the Caucasian mountains on the north. 

 It contains a number of provinces differing materially from each other in natural circum- 

 stances, and artificial culture ; but, unfortunately for us, veiy little is known of their 

 agriculture. In general, the Asiatic Turks are to be considered as a wandering and pas- 

 toral people, cultivating no more corn than what is suflScient for their own maintenance ; 

 and scarcely half civilised. 



861. The climate of Asia Minor has been always considered excellent. Tlie heat of 

 the summer is tempered by numerous chains of high mountains, some of which are covered 

 constantly with snow. The aspect of Asiatic Turkey is mountainous, intermingled with 

 spacious and beautiful plains, which afford pasture to the numerous flocks and herds of 

 the Turkomans. The soil is varied; but the chief agricultural products are wheat, 

 barley, anddoura (millet). It abounds also with grapes, olives, and dates. In Syi'ia, the 

 agriculture is deplorable, and the peasants are in a wretched condition, being sold, as in 

 Poland, with the soil, and their constant fare being barley bread, onions, and water. 



862. The numerous mountains of Asiatic Turkey are frequently clothed with immense 

 forests of pines, oaks, beeches, elms, and other trees ; and the southern shores of the Black 

 Sea present many gloomy forests of great extent. The inhabitants are hence supplied with 

 abundance of fuel, in defect of pit-coal, which has not been explored in any part of 

 Asiatic Turkey. Sudden conflagrations arise from the heed- 

 less waste of the caravans, which, instead of cutting off a few 

 branches, often set fire to a standing tree. The extensive 

 provinces of Natolia, Syria, and Mesopotamia have been little 

 accessible to European curiosity, since their reduction under 

 the Turkish yoke. In Pinkerton's Geography we have a 

 catalogue of those plants and trees that have been found wild 

 in the Asiatic part of the Ottoman territory. Several dyeing 

 drugs and articles of the materia medica are imported from ^-^ 

 the Levant, among which are madder, and a variety called 

 alizan, which grows about Smyrna, and affords a much finer 

 red dye than the European kind ; jalap, scammony, sebesten, 

 the ricinus (ijicinus communis, ^g. 105.) yielding by expres- 

 sion castor oil, squirting cucumber, coloquintida, opium 

 poppy, and spikenard. The best horses in Asiatic Turkey 

 are of Arabian extraction ; but mules and asses are more gene- 

 rally used. Tlie beef is scarce and bad, the mutton superior, 

 and the kid a favourite repast. Other animals are the bear, 

 tiger, hyaena, wild boar, jackal, and dogs in great abundance. On the summits of Cau- 

 casus is found the ibex, or rock-goat; at Angora, singular goats and cats ; the gazel, 

 deer, and hares in great abundance, are found in Asia Minor. The partridges are gene- 

 rally of the red-legged kind, larger than the European ; fish is plentiful and excellent. 



SuBSECT. 2. Of the present State of Agriculture in Persia. 



863. The climate of Persia is various in different parts ; depending less on difference 

 of latitude than on the nattire and elevation of the country, so that it is said to be the 

 country of three climates. The northern provmces on the Caspian are comparatively cold 

 and moist ; in the centre of the kingdom, as Chardin observes, the winter begins in 

 November and continues till March, commonly severe, with ice and snow, the latter 

 falling chiefly on the mountains, and remaining on those three days' journey west of 

 Ispahan for eight months in the year. From March to May high winds are frequent ; 

 but from May to September the air is serene, refreshed by breezes in the night. The heat, 



