Peasant industries include the making of homespun and felt for 'Their original papers are printed in the Izvestia of the Russian Geographical Society, 1883 to 1887, also in the Journal of the Russian ministry of roads and communications.
local needs, the making of primitive agricultural implements and household goods, and the preparation of leather and silk goods. Carpet weaving is an ancient peasant industry for export, and each tribe has its own design, guarded as a secret from other tribes. The cutting off of income from carpet making during the civil war was a disaster. Horses, camels, working cattle, sheep (especially karakul), goats, asses and mules are bred. Their numbers are much below 1913 level, and sheep particularly have diminished.
Salt, Glauber's salt, ozokerite and naphtha exist. In pre-1914 times the output of salt was about 58,000 tons; during the civil war production ceased, but by 1926-7 it had risen to 31,600 tons. Ozokerite production in that year surpassed the previous level, reaching 700 tons as against 450 tons. The naphtha of the Ashkabad district is little exploited as yet, but that on Cheleken Island, which is obtained from natural fountains yields on an average 154,000 tons per annum. Rock salt is exported to Transcaucasia, Persia and Afghanistan, while Glauber's salt from the Kara-bugaz Gulf is increasingly worked, and plans are under consideration for developing a superphosphate manure industry in the region. Vast resources of sulphur exist in the Kara-Kum desert north of Ashkabad, but their exploitation in a waterless desert seems impossible at present and Russia depends on imported sulphur. The chief town and administrative centre is Ashkabad, the population of which increased from 13,737 in 1897 to
in 1926, during which period the population of Krasnovodsk on the Caspian rose from 6,322 to 10,022 and of Mery from 8,533 to 19,099, the latter town has grown rapidly since the construction of the electric power plant.
Factory industries include cotton and wool clean ing, glass manufacture, flour-milling, brewing and distilling; the preparation of dried fruit is increasing. Krasnovodsk on the Caspian is the port for the republic, its chief exports being cotton and dried fruits and its imports naphtha, timber, grain and sugar. During the civil war dredging operations ceased and the town has consequently suffered. A fishing industry exists along the coast, especially near Chikishliar and Hassan-Kuli, but it is still con siderably below the pre-war output of I0,000 tons. The Trans caspian railway is the chief means of communication, and there is a branch from Mery to Kushka on the southern frontier. The Amu-darya is difficult for steam navigation, and camel caravan is the chief trading link. Caravan routes cross the desert to the oasis of Khiva, to the various stations on the railway, to the port of Krasnovodsk and to the towns of North Persia. Much
of the present income of the republic is going towards the pro vision of new irrigation canals and the sinking of wells. Its finan cial prospects are good in view of its trade with Persia and Afghanistan and the development of its mineral resources. The literacy rate is the lowest in the U.S.S.R., averaging 4.2% among men and 0.2% among women.
The Population consists of Turkmens 70.2%, Uzbeks 11.7%, Russians, Ukranians and White Russians (chiefly in towns) 9.1%, Armenians i%, Kirghiz 0.7%, with a few Per sians and Bokhara Jews. About half of the Turkmen tribes live in the republic, the rest being found in Persia and Afghanistan. Turkmen tribes seem to have been settled in the steppe between the Oxus (Amu-darya) and the Caspian from time immemorial and are of the west-central Turkish group. They are mentioned by Arab writers of the loth century and were noted even at that time as much feared by their neighbours owing to their warlike disposition. Up to the time of the defeat of the Tekke tribe at Geok-tepe in 1881 by the Russians, they preserved their nomadic predatory life, frequently holding Russian and Persian captives for ransom, and were perpetually engaged in tribal warfare. Since the Russian conquest many have taken to settled life, though much semi-nomadism and some pure nomadism still exists. The Yamut tribe, which formerly wandered in the steppe to the south east of the Caspian, is now mainly occupied at the naphtha works in Cheleken Island, while other Yamuts settled as agri culturalists in Khiva in the early 19th century. The Tekkes, who were the most important tribe at the time of the Russian occu pation (1881) are much scattered ; many have become settled cultivators. In early times they inhabited the Mangishlak penin sula, but were driven out by the Kalmucks in 1718. Later they occupied the Akkal and Mery oases. The most ancient tribe was the Salors, who occupied the western corner of the Paro pamisus range, and with whom the Arabs came in contact on their march towards the Oxus in the 7th century. Intertribal strife, and emigration to the oases and to Persia have much reduced their numbers. The Ersaris, formerly a warlike tribe of the Mangyshlak peninsula were driven by the Uzbeks to the steppe south of the Ust-Urt plateau, and have lately settled as peaceful cultivators on the left bank of the Oxus. The building of the Transcaspian railway further altered their habits, as did the intro duction of naphtha and salt working. Up to the October 1917 revolution they preserved their tribes and clans, and, though these will not disappear at once, the confiscation of water and property from the chieftains drove a sharp wedge into traditional custom and must lead to tribal disintegration. For the history of the oasis of Merv, which capitulated to the Russians in 1883 see