1042 
but little. In different places along the 
coast a certain number of salt pans are 
exploited by the Turkish government. 
In Misurata, a town some 100 miles east- 
ward from Tripoli, fine carpets are man- 
ufactured, which are sold in the bazaars 
of the capital. 
The home industries of Tripoli were 
greatly encouraged by the Turkish Tech- 
nical School which was founded by the 
late Marshal Redjeb Pasha, who acted 
for 10 years as governor-general of the 
vilayet. He was a man of remarkable 
ability, an excellent administrator, who 
did more for the welfare of the country 
than any of his predecessors. In the 
first Young Turkish administration of 
1908 he was appointed Minister of War. 
He returned to Constantinople, from 
which he had been so long sundered by 
the Hamidian policy of keeping the 
strongest men in the remotest posts. But 
his new appointment was of short dura- 
tion, for he died a few weeks after his 
arrival in Stambul. In an obituary no- 
tice the Times described him as “one of 
the ablest men in the Turkish Empire.” 
He had governed Tripoli honorably for 
many years, and it was said that he 
left in debt. 
On this occasion it may be permissi- 
ble to mention some other distinguished 
Turkish officials who struggled for the 
progress of that forlorn province of the 
Ottoman Empire under most difficult 
circumstances, and whose names ought 
to be remembered by the outside world. 
Djamy Bey, deputy of Fezzan in the 
Turkish Parliament, was a man of high 
education, through whose energetic meas- 
ures the communications between the 
coast and the hinterland were greatly im- 
proved. By his remarkable description 
of the Tuareg city of Ghat in the 
_ Geographical Journal (London, August, 
1909) he made himself known in the 
geographical world. Samy Bey, gover- 
nor of Fezzan, was a man whose whole 
life was devoted to the betterment of that 
poor province. By his able policy he 
brought the lawless desert tribes under 
Turkish rule. Under the régime of 
Abdul Hamid he suffered for the Young 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
Turkish cause as an exile in some remote 
part of the Empire for 10 years. Men- 
tion should also be made of Dr. Reshid 
Bey, who ruled the province of Homs 
for the last four years; he also ranges 
among the class of high-minded and 
noble men. Certainly not all Turkish 
officials in Tripolitania have deserved 
praise, but the names of these men who 
worked for their country in a spirit of 
noble and unselfish patriotism ought not 
to be forgotten. 
BARLEY AND ESPARTO GRASS ARE THE 
PRINCIPAL PRODUCTS 
Agriculture and cattle-rearing are the 
chief resources of Tripoli, but they flour- 
ish only in small patches; fertile land we 
find on a narrow strip along the coast, 
in the region of Jebel Gharian and in 
Cyrenaica. The product is barley, which 
in the last few years has superseded 
wheat, olives, figs, and vines. Barley is 
shipped from Cyrenaica, mainly to Eng- 
land, but the crops are subject to great 
variations. Four years ago barley had 
to be imported into Benghazi, owing to 
the complete absence of rain, which 
caused a failure of the crop in western 
Cyrenaica. The same is now being ex- 
perienced in Tripoli, where a famine 
threatens the population, as there has 
been scarcity of rain for the last two 
years. 
Some figures may illustrate the amount 
and also the variation of the barley ex- 
port: In the year 1903 it amounted to 
£70,000 ; in 1904 it was only half that of 
the previous year, £32,000, and in 1908 
the export was practically nil. 
Another important product of the soil 
is esparto grass. Esparto, or Spanish, 
grass (Lygeum spartum) is a grass re- 
sembling the ornamental feather grass 
of gardens. It attains a height of three 
or four feet. On account of the tenacity 
of its leaves it has for centuries been 
employed for the making of ropes, san- 
dals, caskets, and mats. It grows in the 
steppes and in the Jebel, as in Morocco 
and Algiers, but is inferior in quality to 
that of these countries. It is mainly 
shipped to England, where it is now used 
