. The Turk and the land of Haig; or, Turkey and Armenia: descriptive, historical, and picturesque . winter. The farmers son does not migrate to towns in searchof better employment, but stays where he is born, byhis fathers cattle, possessed only of what the cravings ofnature require, and is immovable in his peasant in-stincts as well as in beliefs, ideas, and usages. For hisdull and unenterprising character and his perpetualpoverty, the Turkish government is to a large extentresponsible. The system of levying a tithe of all prod-uce, and the additional custom dues for the exporta-tion of produ
. The Turk and the land of Haig; or, Turkey and Armenia: descriptive, historical, and picturesque . winter. The farmers son does not migrate to towns in searchof better employment, but stays where he is born, byhis fathers cattle, possessed only of what the cravings ofnature require, and is immovable in his peasant in-stincts as well as in beliefs, ideas, and usages. For hisdull and unenterprising character and his perpetualpoverty, the Turkish government is to a large extentresponsible. The system of levying a tithe of all prod-uce, and the additional custom dues for the exporta-tion of products from one province to another, leaveno inducement to the outraged farmer to grow morethan is required to keep soul and body together, andhis family is thus reduced to the condition of a stolid 2l8 THE TURK AND THE LAND OF HAIG. and unprogressive peasantry. Governmental exactions,wrung by dishonest officials from the hard-toiling farm-ers, are another evidence of Turkish degeneration anddecay. Indeed, of all nations, the Turkish governmentis the last to realize the relation of town and farm ;. A TURKISH PLOW AND PLOWMAN. that the physical health, vigor, and, indeed the progress-iveness of a people, in no little measure depend onthe nutritive quality of its flour, meat, and vegetables,and that the better the farmer the better will be thequality of his produce, and the higher the pricesfrom his customers in the city. When we add to thistrait of stupidity the crude and primitive system of SOCIAL AND HOME LIFE. 219 agriculture, which we have elsewhere described, we can-not wonder that the name of the Turk has ever been asynonym of decay and poverty. In rural districts, such as the one described, the oldpatriarchal administrative system is still in vogue,where, within the crude and primitive log-house, by thehearth, sits the venerable kehyaJi, whose every word islaw to those within. He is, as indicated, the agent forhis community in all transactions with the the cons
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