On the western margin of the Asiatic deserts, Syria, Asia Minor, Armenia, and northwestern Persia belong to the same subtropical or Mediterranean climatic province as Sicily and Greece. Fairly abun dant rain in winter, but almost none for five or six months in summer gives them the disadvantages of one-crop agriculture, a relatively sparse population, and dependence in large measure on animals. Here, more than in almost any other part of the world, innumerable dry ruins appear to indicate that one of the prolonged climatic pulsations to which the earth is subject is now causing this particular region to have fewer storms, less rainfall, a less stimulating climate, and more malaria and other diseases than two or three thousand years ago.
South and east of the Asiatic deserts the rainfall of India, Indo China, China, and Manchuria displays a marked contrast to that of the countries. The dry winters and wet summers of the south lnd east are exactly the reverse of the dry summers and wet winters the southwest. The dry southeastern winters are due to monsoon yinds blowing out from the high pressure area of the Asiatic interior; he wet summers to inblowing monsoon winds caused by low pressure n the interior. The summer winds come from relatively warm seas Lnd are forced to rise over high mountains. The rainfall which they ving is one of the chief causes of the dense population and remarkable levelopment of agriculture in southeastern Asia.
Business Relations of Northern Asia.—The climate of Asia and the i'elief and other geographical conditions have a profound effect on the haracter of the people and on their relation to the world's business. ,n the north beyond the Arctic Circle the cold Tundra belt with its panty vegetation is so devoid of natural resources and of inhabitants hat it is commercially and industrially negligible. Next comes the great forest belt of Siberia, lying chiefly between Latitudes and but descending to latitude 50° near Lake Baikal and near Vladi vostok. This is sometimes spoken of as the world's greatest timber reserve outside the torrid zone. In area it is indeed the greatest, but not in quality or in capacity to furnish a steady supply. The trouble is the climate. The extremely long, cold winters, and in some places. the light rainfall cause many of the trees which are chiefly conifers, to be relatively small and stunted. The taiga, as the low swampy forests are called, makes good paper pulp but not good merchantable timber. Moreover, the trees do not grow especially fast, so that their speed of replacement is only a fraction of that in regions like western Oregon where the conifers live under almost optimum conditions, Doubtless many lumbering communities will some day be scattered through the Siberian forest, but they are likely to be crude and migra-, tory. In the highlands of eastern Siberia gold is abundant and other
metals may give rise to mining towns. But these are scarcely better than lumber camps as promoters of civilization.
Why the Agricultural Belt of Siberia has Little Trade with America.—On th4 southwest the forests merge into the Siberian agricultural belt which is traversed by the Siberian railway. This belt has been the basis of rosy but doubtful prophecies that Siberia is the white man's land of the future; that it will some day rival the United States. The deep-soiled plain is climatically one of the best parts of Asia and is fairly well adapted to the white man. It produces a moderate abundance of wheat, oats, barley, and hemp, and of horses, cattle, sheep, and swine. It also has a supply of fairly good coal west of Lake Baikal. But these advantages are largely offset by certain disadvan tages. First, the belt is more limited than is generally supposed. It has a width of scarcely 500 miles and extends eastward from the Urals only about 2000 miles; that is, its total area is about a million square miles or a third of that of the United States. Northward and also eastward in the plateaus beyond Lake Baikal the climate is too cold for profitable and extensive agriculture, while southward it is too dry. Even in the belt itself the agricultural possibilities are limited by the cold.
In the second place, the facilities for transportation are poor. The plain and the rivers indeed appear favorable, but the rivers are frozen about half the year and empty into the Arctic Ocean. The plain is often only half covered with snow in winter so that neither runners nor wheels can be used, and it is hopelessly muddy in spring when the snow melts. Worse than this is the great distance to markets. The agricultural belt of Siberia is adapted only to raising a few food products, and the nearest large manufacturing region which must bring food from a distance in great quantities is Germany, over 2000 miles from the central region near Tomsk, Omsk, and Barnaul. For that reason the more progressive Siberians have taken to raising dairy products, for butter and cheese can stand long transportation because of their high value in proportion to their bulk.