December, 1912 
AMERICAN 
HOMES AND GARDENS xiii 
LICORICE IN TURKEY 
NE of the chief exports from the 
Smyrna district is licorice, either in the 
form of root or paste. The word, which 
seems to be a corruption of the Greek 
glykyrrhiza, means “sweet root,” and so 
it is commonly called in the Orient. 
The United States is probably the best 
buyer of this product, taking from the en- 
tire near and middle East, according to the 
best informed sources, between 40,000 and 
50,000 tons in good years. The declared 
export returns to this office show that over 
15,000 tons of licorice. root and paste were 
shipped to the United States from Smyrna 
during 1910, representing a value of 
$573,746, but the depressed business condi- 
tions of 1911 were reflected in the licorice 
exportation to the United States, which de- 
creased last year to $137,848. There is 
no doubt that a large surplus carried over 
from last year is now on hand in local 
warehouses, though it is impossible to 
secure any accurate information on this 
point. 
Licorice belongs to the pea or vetch fam- 
ily, and grows wild, the plant commonly 
reaching a height of about four feet. It is 
the long, straight root which is of com- 
mercial value. No means have been adopted 
for cultivating the plant, which requires 
about three years to reach maturity, or for 
improving its condition, 
The manipulation of the root is very 
simple. It is gathered into piles by the 
laborers and left to dry, then made into 
bales, in which form it is shipped. The 
Smyrna exporters also have a plant in the 
interior for making licorice paste. The 
Asiatic habitat of licorice is chiefly Syria, 
Mesopotamia, etc., and may be stated in 
broad terms to lie along the fortieth parallel 
of latitude or below it. Vast regions in the 
valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates are 
prolific in the plant, but are at present un- 
exploited on account of lack of communica- 
tion. The licorice root gathered in Syria 
is brought to Alexandretta by camels, from 
which port it is shipped. 
Licorice as a drug is used to disguise the 
taste of unpleasant medicines, as a coating 
for pills, and is also said to have a mild 
laxative action. In Egypt and India it is 
used in the manufacture of sherbet. In 
America licorice paste is used in enormous 
quantities to sweeten chewing tobacco, and 
it is also supposed to enter into the manu- 
facture of various brands of chewing gum. 
Imports of licorice root into the United 
States during the fiscal year ended June 30, 
1912, are given in official statistics as 
74,582,225 pounds of a value of $1,309,789, 
contrasted with 125,135,490 pounds, value 
- $2,060,235, in the fiscal year 1911, and 
82,207,496 pounds value $1,365,077, in 
1910. 
EDUCATION IN BELGIUM 
CCORDING to the Annuaire Statis- 
tique, compiled by the Minister of the 
Interior, the proportion of illiterates in 
Belgium in 1910, by provinces—not includ- 
ing children five years of age (22.37 per 
cent, and children less than eight years of 
age (19.12 per cent.)—was as follows: 
Luxemburg, 20 per cent.; Namur, 22 per 
cent.; Liege, 26 per cent.; Brabant, 30 per 
cent.; Antwerp and Limburg, 32 per cent. ; 
Hainaut, 33 per cent.; East and West Flan- 
ders, 39 per cent. In Germany, where ob- 
ligatory instruction has been in force for a 
number of years, there were in 1909 only 
two illiterates out of every 10,000 young 
men enrolled in the army, while in Belgium 
in 1910 the proportion was 798 per 10,000 
enlistments. 
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