Subtropical countries occasionally suffer from famines which would be as bad as those of China and India if the population were equally dense. Syria, for example, has lost its people by the hundred thousand on account of drought. Its famines are caused either by the failure of the rains to begin at the proper time in the fall. or to continue late enough in the spring.
Such famines are one of the important reasons why most monsoon and subtropical regions are backward. As equatorial regions are held back by excess of rain, so these regions suffer from insufficient rain. A drought of a single month at the critical time is enough to cause dire distress. For generations the people have suffered such disasters, and this has helped to make them hopeless and therefore inefficient. One of the most interesting questions of the future will be to see how fully the Zionists in Palestine with the advantages of good government, modern methods and abundant capital can over come the handicaps which have hitherto retarded most subtropical countries.
Mediterranean Subtropical Regions.—The most important of sub tropical countries do not suffer from famine as do those of Asia, for they are located in Europe and have a better rainfall than the rest. They are Italy, Spain, and Greece. With them may be grouped the countries of North Africa that border the Mediterranean Sea. Since Europe, Asia, and Africa really form one great land mass penetrated by such gulfs as the Mediterranean and Red Seas, this whole group of countries actually lies in a position corresponding to that of California. They are so important that the term "Mediterranean climate" is often used instead of "subtropical climate." They contain not far from a hundred million people, which is four times as many as the subtropical regions of the rest of the world, but less than a quarter as many as the monsoon regions of Asia.
On the whole the Mediterranean countries are more advanced than the Aleppo province which we have used as a type. Even Italy, the most progressive, however, is behind California. All alike are notable for their extensive irrigation, and for their great crops of wheat, barley, and fruit. Yet there are great differences among them. For example, in Turkey and Morocco most of the farmers use crude wooden plows tipped with a bit of iron; they thresh the grain under the feet of oxen; and winnow it by throwing it into the wind. In Greece and Tripoli such .plows are also used, but much lesS commonly. The threshing floors are often of stone; a roller or sledge with short teed like a harrow is used for threshing, and a hand machine for winnowing.
In Spain wooden plows are found in out-of-the-way regions, but a good many modern steel ones are imported together with some threshing machinery. In Italy the island of Sicily is as backward as any part of Spain, but farther north almost everyone uses modern implements. although generally 'of a simple type.
The North American Subtropical Region: The Advantages of California.—Although the southern' half of California has a typical subtropical climate, it is more favored than even the best of the corre sponding Old World regions. The chief reason for this difference is that although the winters have about the same temperature, the California summers are not nearly so hot as those of the Mediter ranean regions. Thanks to the presence of the cool Pacific Ocean the summer temperature at Los Angeles averages about F. cooler than at Beirut, which lies in the same latitude and is directly upon the coast instead of twenty miles inland. Similar differences prevail throughout the coastal regions. Hence California has a great advan tage, for the energy of the people is not sapped by extreme heat, and the ground does not become parched so rapidly through rapid evaporation. Another advantage of California is that its mountains are much higher than those of Aleppo and Syria, and therefore furnish much larger supplies of water for irrigation.
Subtropical Farming in California.—(1) The Pastoral Stage,— Agriculture is the great industry of California. The products of the farm are worth three times as much as those of all the mines, oil wells, and quarries. Even the manufacturing industries consist largely of the preparation of farm products.
The agriculture of California has passed through three stages in which grass, grain, and fruit have been successively the most impor tant forms of vegetation. The first white settlers were Spaniards from Mexico. They depended solely on grass, for they raised cattle in enormous numbers. The animals thrived on the broad plains, for the thick green grass which is so lovely in the spring when it is span gled with bright flowers, is equally nutritious when it becomes dry and brown in the summer. Up to 1848 hides and tallow were almost the sole Californian products. So eager were the Spaniards to make room for more cattle that they killed large numbers of horses. A live horse was no more valuable than his hide.