Variation in the Price and Supply of Wheat. 241 
Annis-seed. — The quality grown here is inferior to the Mediterranean seed, 
but superior to that of Anatolia. The strength is good, but the chief defect is 
in the colour, which is less bright than that of Sicily. This is attributable to 
the early autumn rains. This seed is worth, on an average, 28s. per cwt. in the 
London markets. 
Canary-seed is a crop increasingly in favour with the peasants. 
The peasants are lamentably careless in neglecting to weed their land, and 
in allowing the seeds of weeds to get mixed with the grain sent to market. 
Linseed is grown superior to that of Russia and the Danube provinces. 
DIARBEKR and KURDISTAN. Repoet by Mr. Consul Taylor for 
1863. — The area, including part of the fertile plains of Mesopotamia, is 19,000 
square miles. 
The capital (Diarbekr) is situated at a point on tlie Tigris where the river 
first becomes navigable to Bagdad and the Persian Gulf. It is also the centre 
of the great roads that run north, south, east and west, throughout Turkey, 
and is the meeting-point for caravans from Bagdad, Aleppo, ISrzeroum, and 
Samsoun. This splendid site marks it as a great commercial emporium, 
and such in fact it has been since the time when under the auspices of 
Constantine it rose from the status of a village to that of an important military 
and trading station. 
It has been repeatedly plundered by Persians, Arabs, Seljooks, Tartars, 
Soofees, and Turks, and has always appeared to furnish a rich booty to the 
captors. 
In the last 30 years its commerce, as well as that of Aleppo and Bagdad, 
has greatly dechned, notwithstanding the greater security enjoyed under the 
present Government compared with the state of anarchy and despotism which 
prevailed under the Kurdish Beys and Pashas of a former period. 
Mohair goats are confined to the districts about Jezireh ; the texture of the 
mohair is not so silky as that of Angora, and its staple is shorter. Crossing 
with merinos would be attended with success. Sheep cost 5s. Qd. in their 
native pastures ; 13s. at Aleppo and Damascus ; Camels, 4Z. 10s., and 6Z. to 8Z. 
The fleeces weigh about 2^ lbs. ; and since 1859 the price has risen from lOfc?. 
a fleece to Is. %%d. Including the wool produced by the sheep bred by the 
Koords in the mountains, which is inferior, the total production is about 90O 
tons in 1863, compared with 450 tons in 1857. 
The tax on produce is taken in kind, and the large landed proprietors, who 
share the crop with the fellahs, or cultivators, on a kind of metayer system, 
care little so long as they get their yearly share of produce. 
The produce of wheat in the Pashalik, in 1863, is estimated at 214,000 
quarters, and the average price is 15s. a quarter ; barley, 295,000 quarters, at 
7s. ad. That harvest, however, was a very poor one, owing to severe winter 
frosts and the ravages of the locusts. The actual price of wheat was 48s. 
a quarter, and much corn was imported from neighbouring provinces. 
Population estimated at 600,000. 
Aleppo, 1865. — A company of speculators forced up the price of wheat and 
barley until it reached an exorbitant price. 
Dyeing and the weaving of silk and cotton stuffs are the staple industries. 
Wool is exported when the Arabs will furnish it. 
Damascus, 1865. — Terrible misfortunes have befallen the pashality ; the 
crops have been attacked by locusts, worms, and blight. Cholera has decimated 
some districts and caused a general panic, and the cattle plague has left many 
villages without the means of ploughing ; added to which, Government has 
increased taxation, and no one is willing to buy real property, not knowing to 
what extent it may be taxed next year. 
Merchandise from Bagdad to Damascus has to perform a journey of three or 
four months by way of Mosul, Diarbekr, Aleppo, and Alexandretta, and thence 
YOL. v.— S. S. R 
