"دليل بلاد فارس، المجلد I ويشمل محافظات أستراباد، شاهرود-بوستان، خراسان، وسيستان" [و‎‎٢‎٢‎٧] (٧٢٢/٤٦٠)

excavations by a man below, and wound up by another above. Where the soil
is soft, the mouths of the wells are secured by masonry.
“ This mode of procuring water is common to the whole of Persia ; and
although a particular and most important object is hereby attained, yet it
doubtless gives a great advantage to an enemy, who, by the destruction of
objects so valuable, so defenceless, and so easily destroyed, may in a day
injure the work of years, and ruin, perhaps permanently, the cultivation
of a large district.^
The food resources of Persia, as a whole, are far in excess of the wants
of the population. All cultivation on the plateau being dependent on arti
ficial irrigation, absolute failure of the harvest is unknown, except from
preventible cause, as neglect of watercourses.— {St. John.)
The vegetable produce of Persia may be tabulated as follows
Tars—Tobacco, fruits, opium, grain, oranges, limes.
Karman—Indigo, henna, dates, pistachio nuts, anise-seed, cotton.
Irak—Cotton, rice, gram, fruits, manna, henna, opium.
Khurasan— Cotton, grain, asafcetida, manna, tobacco, dates, gum.
Mazandaran—Cotton, sugar, rice, hemp, oranges, timher.
Gilan—Rice, oranges, hemp, timher.
Azarbaijan—Gram, cotton, fruits.
Karmanshah—Gram, gallnuts.
Hamadan—Raisins.
Buni j ird—F ruits.
“ Agriculture.' —The depressed state of agriculture in Persia is, in a great
degree, to be attributed to the unsettled nature and disposition of the gov
ernment, which affords no protection to private property, and offers no
encouragement to industry. The cultivator of the soil rarely expects to
reap the fruits of his labours. His lands and house are liable to be plundered
by the retainers of every petty chief j and he and his family may, in an
instant, be deprived of all their little capital and reduced to beggary and
want. The most fruitful districts, which under a wise and beneficent
sovei'eign might reward the toils of the husbandman, have therefore been
abandoned, and now lie waste and uncultivated. The nature of the soil in
this great country varies almost as much as the climate. In the southern
and eastern provinces it is light and sandy; in the western and interior
parts, hard and gravelly; and in the northern division, which borders on
the Caspian Sea, rich and loamy.
“ Rice, wheat, and barley are common grains. Cotton, indigo, and tobacco
are also raised ; and no country can exceed this, either in the variety or
flavour of its fruits. Apples, pears, cherries, walnuts, peaches, apricots,
melons, and pomegranates are everywhere to be procured at very low
prices. The quinces of Isfahan are the finest in the East; and no grape is
more delicious than that of Shiraz. In the provinces bordering on the
Caspian Sea and mount Caucasus the air is perfumed with roses and
other sweet-scented flowers. Here trees and plants of almost every descrip
tion may be found; but no skilful botanist has ever thoroughly explored
these delightful regions. The most common trees in the interior are the
mulberry, the sycamore, the walnut, the cypress, the conar (which bears a
little fruit resembling a crab apple), and the poplar. There is also a tree
common at Khonsar and in the neighbourhood of Isfahan, from which a
species of gum or manna is gathered. Amongst the vegetable productions
we may enumerate cabbages, cucumbers, turnips, carrots, peas, and beans;