602. Living the life of the ancients.— There are few railroads in Asia Minor, and almost none in Persia. In this country, 800 miles wide and 1300 miles long, people are living almost as they did 1000 or 2000 years ago. In fact, the roads were better 2500 years ago when Persia was a great empire than they were in 1914. At the opening of the World War, except for a few miles of railway and a few wagon roads, all travel was by the backs of horses, camels, or mules. All trade was by caravans which climbed high mountains and crossed dreary desert plains. If the traveler could find an inn he was fortunate. Even then he must furnish his own bed and food, as is the custom at Persian inns.
603. plateau is a land of little rain. In some localities there is rain enough over small areas for wheat and barley. Near some of the mountains, as in Utah and the Mexican plateau, water may be had for irrigating small areas. These precious spots are used intensively. Rice is grown where there is water enough. Where water is less plentiful, there are rich gardens in which vegetables are grown beneath fruit trees. People who need more land so much, usually grow fruits and vegetables together. We also see the intensive use of land in the production of opium, of attar of roses, and of silk. These products require little land, but with much labor they yield large cash returns.
The wheat and barley cannot be sent far on muleback to market. Therefore each locality must raise its own supply. Some times more is raised than can be used. Then the price is low. Again, in bad seasons, less is raised than is needed, and the price is high.
The price of needful things is always affected by the quantity to be had. This is especially true in places like this region, where the people have no opportunity for world trade. This interior district, which is almost without railroads, supports over 200,000 people in Teheran and as many more in Tabriz. Salt Lake City has 117,000 people.
Much of the world's licorice is made of the extract from the root of a wild bush that is dug up by the people of Asia Minor.
604. The most of this wide upland, like our own Southwestern Plateau, is fit only for pasture, nomads are to be found in almost every part of it. The total number of nomads in Persia is estimated as a million and a quarter. Compare that number with the population of the four states of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Nevada. The Kurds of Kurdistan are almost entirely nomads. These nomads have about as
hard a time of it as do those who live in the desert of Sahara itself, for on the plateau there are sometimes heavy falls of snow which cover the grass. Men and animals sometimes freeze to death in the snow. Poverty and suffering encourage these people to be raiders and to plunder their neighbors.
605. Manufacture and region almost without coal, water power, railroads, or good highways cannot use machinery as it is used in the factories of Europe and America. The Armenians and Persians, like the craftsmen of ancient times, work by hand, and are very skilful. They make beautiful metal work, and their firearms and other weapons are often inlaid with lavish designs in gold, silver, and pearl.
The most wonderful and expensive rugs in the world come out of this plateau. These rugs, together with other valuable exports of silk, furs, wool, and skins, go for long distances to market on the backs of pack animals. When sold they pay for the im port of cotton, sugar, tea, kerosene, and small manufactures.
606. Future.—This region, which has more people than Canada, is ready to enter the age of transport, machinery, and trade, if only it can have peace and order. Then man could work and build and be sure of keeping his property after he has acquired it. The people are poor but willing to work. If this region has a chance, one of the first things produced will be minerals. It is rich in iron, copper, zinc, and manganese. Coal is also found. There are promising oil fields on the south shore of the Caspian and in southern Persia. Even before the World War, there were railroads in the Trans-Caucasus, and, as a result, hundreds of ships sailed each year from and Poti, with oil for Europe and manganese ore for the steel mills of England, Belgium, and Germany. Some of the ore came even to the United States. This is only one example of what railroads may do here.
In many a mountain defile in this long plateau there is room for irrigation reser voirs .such as we are building in our own country, but first peace must come. When this land really enters the world's trade it will send its goods out by the four seas that touch it. The Caspian, with the great river Volga, gives Russia a fine chance to trade with Azerbaijan and north Persia, while the Persian Gulf and the British possession of Mesopotamia give Britain, with her ships, an open road to southern and western Persia.