AGRICULTURE, ETC. Though the inhabitants live almost exclusively by farming and cattle raising, agriculture is in a very primitive con dition. The reasons are the oppressive taxation, which consumes one-third of the harvests, the wretched government, the lack of roads, the low standard of civilization, and the unfavorable di vision of the soil. As nearly all the land belongs to the Crown or the Church, there is little free hold property. and the peasantry are over whelmed with poverty. The great ecclesiastical estates (vakuf ) are farmed in as primitive a manner as the Immblest peasant's leasehold. Fertilizers are rarely applied to the soil. The fact that in spite of these drawbacks the soil is able to produce more than sufficient to meet the wants of the country is proof of the fertility and capabilities of these lands. The chief agricul tural productions of Turkey in Europe and Asia are cereals (maize, wheat, and barley being the most important), of which there is usually a surplus for export : wine, figs, and raisins. olives for oil produced on the coasts; roses for the manufacture of attar: tobacco of superior qual ity; flax, hemp, cotton. opium, and silk. After years of decline the culture of silk in 1895 be gait to revive, and in 1901 203,675 ounces of silkworm eggs and 11,600,000 pounds of cocoons were produced in the provinces of Brusa and ]said in Asia Minor. A very small amount of
raw silk is consumed in the home industries, the re mainder being exported, chiefly to France. Turkey and Bulgaria supply most of the oil of roses in the general trade, and the Turkish production in 1901 was about 5801) pounds. Forestry is entirely unknown, and forests have been pre served only in those districts where the want of roads has made their destruction difficult. Elsewhere wide mountain tracts are perfectly bare and are used for pasturage. Over 000,000 acres are still under forests in European Turkey, which is about one-seventh of the forest area of the empire. The raising of live stock is the chief occupation of the inhabitants of the central and western parts of the country. This industry more than meets the local require ments, though little is done to improve the breeds of cattle. The small, but sturdy. Turk ish horses are used for riding and as pack ani mals, and buffaloes for draught purposes. boats' flesh and mutton are the chief meats consumed, and Albania exports a considerable quantity of wool. The fisheries are prominent, those of the Bosporus alone representing a value of over $1,000,000 a year, while the Mediterranean coast produces sponges of excellent quality, and the Red Sea mother-of-pearl.