'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎102r] (208/610)

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Many districts are incapable of supporting a larger population
-either owing to the limited extent of cultiveable land, as in the
Elburz, or from lack of water to irrigate more extended culti
vation, as in the plains of Zinjan and Abhar, Kazvin and Tehran
where the water supply could only be increased by digging
more ‘ q anats ’ and by scientific methods such as the use of
'piping to prevent waste and the Construction of reservoirs.
The districts naturally capable of supporting a very much
larger population are Khalkhal, Khamseh, Mazandaran, and
to a lesser extent, Gxlan.
In Khalkhal and Khamseh the conditions essential to pros
perity are the introduction of law and order and a provi
dent administration which would educate the people to set
aside a two years’ reserve of grain against a possible failure
of the unirrigated crops.
In Mazandaran, which is magnificently fertile, and much
under-populated, the obstacles are the unhealthy summer
climate, inertia and lack of development, the total absence
of land communications, and the temporary stagnation of
trade with Russia.
Gilan, thanks to the port of Enzali and its position on the
mainroad to Tehran, is more developed and thickly populated
than Mazandaran, but has suffered greatly from the Jangall
rebellion and cessation of trade with Russia, and in 1920 from
the Bolsheviks.
B.—Total Population.
In the absence of statistics any accurate estimate of popu
lation is impossible.
In the towns of Tehran, Barfarush and Sari a census was
attempted in 1920 but the census figures at best can only
be regarded as approximate. The ignorant population is
suspicious and likely to make false declarations of the numbers
of inmates of each house, and the closed doors of the Persian
“ Andarun ” prevent verification of returns.
For the other towns no figures are available except those
given by popular report, and it is probable that they are exag
gerated.
The only mode of estimating the population of the country
districts with rough accuracy would be to compile lists of villages *
* A difficult task owing to sudden floods due to cloud bursts in the hills. A
small reservoir, which had been constructed by Sipah Saiar in a valley north of
-K.azvin, was half silted up by a single .flood in 1919.
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