The national geographic magazine 



65 



the: varied resources 



All of the varied resources that con- 

 tributed to make the nations of antiquity 

 materially great are still available for the 

 future enrichment of the people dwelling 

 in those same lands. 



Herodotus, writing of Lower Mesopo- 

 tamia in the noontide of its prosperity, 

 declared : "It is far the best corn land of 

 all the countries I know. It is so superb 

 that the average yield is two hundred 

 fold, and three hundred fold in the best 

 years. But I will not state the dimen- 

 sions (of the plants) I have ascertained, 

 because I know that for any one who has 

 not visited Babylonia and witnessed these 

 facts about the crops for himself they 

 would be altogether beyond belief." 



In the days of the early Caliphate an 

 inventory showed some 12,500,000 acres 

 of land under cultivation ; and Sir Wil- 

 liam Wilcox in his report, "The Irriga- 

 tion of Mesopotamia," published in 191 1, 

 states that the Tigris-Euphrates delta is 

 an arid region of some 12,500,000 acres, 

 but capable of easy leveling and reclama- 

 tion. The Arabic name for this region is 

 Sazvdd, which means the black land. 



And northern Mesopotamia is equally 

 rich in possibilities. In ancient days this 

 was a district "so populous and full of 

 riches that Rome and the rulers of Iran 

 fought seven centuries for its possession, 

 till the Arabs conquered it from both," 

 writes A. J. Toynbee. 



The same author points out that "in 

 the ninth century A. D. northern Meso- 

 potamia paid Harun-al-Rashid as great 

 a revenue as Egypt, and its cotton com- 

 manded the market of the world." It is 

 well known that our word muslin is de- 

 rived from the name of the city Mosul, 

 in Upper Mesopotamia. 



splendid possibilities; neglected 



RESOURCES 



And why should this land not be pro- 

 ducing as well as ten centuries ago ? The 

 soil and the climate have not changed. 

 The rainfall and the water for irrigation 

 are just as abundant as in the days of 

 old. The people are the same that lived 

 then in the land, equally industrious and 

 thrifty. Why have the past four cen- 

 turies laid a blight over the fairest corn 

 land of the east? 



But it is not Mesopotamia alone that 

 offers agricultural returns in the Empire 

 of Turkey. There are the fertile sea- 

 coast plains of ancient Philistia, the up- 

 lands of Moab and Ammon, the wheat 

 fields of the Hauran south of Damascus, 

 and the great valley between the Lebanon 

 and Anti-Lebanon, in Syria ; the whole 

 elevated plateau of central Asia Minor, 

 with Konia (ancient Iconium) as its 

 center. There are the fertile river val- 

 leys and hillsides of Armenia and Kur- 

 distan, together with the famous Cilician 

 plain and the regions about Smyrna and 

 Broussa. 



Not only grain of every kind rewards 

 the industry of the peasant, but also 

 fruits of every variety, semi-tropical and 

 temperate, are easily produced. Who has 

 not eaten of the figs of Smyrna and the 

 dates of Bossrah or heard of the grapes 

 of Eschol? 



PRIMITIVE METHODS OF" AGRICULTURE 



The first interest of the Turkish Em- 

 pire is agricultural. From north to south 

 and from east to west it offers splendid 

 opportunities to the farmer. And these 

 lands in great part lie uncultivated. Res- 

 ervoirs for the storage of water and other 

 irrigation works that might change desert 

 acres to producing fields are not con- 

 structed. 



The most primitive modes of cultiva- 

 tion are still in use — the ox-drawn plow 

 of Bible days, the cutting of great fields 

 of grain with the sickle, the threshing- 

 floor, where wheat is trodden out by the 

 hoofs of animals; the slow and painful 

 hand labor, with clumsy instruments, that 

 yields but a minimum of return for the 

 effort expended. 



It is all a tale of splendid possibilities, 

 but of neglected and undeveloped re- 

 sources. Yet it is a promise to the future 

 generation of boundless productivity and 

 of untold wealth in store for progressive 

 industry and a benevolent government. 



The marvelous resources of this Em- 

 pire are not comprised in its agricultural 

 possibilities alone. The story of Crcesus 

 gathering gold from the river sands is 

 not an idle tale. Just this year an Amer- 

 ican missionary writes: "Grains of gold 

 are frequently found in the gravel left 

 after the torrential floods." 



