Palestine]
between Gaza and Haifa. The bulk of the orange plantations are in the vilayet of Beirut and the mutessarifik of Jerusalem, the Jaffa district being especially important; the chief lemon groves are about Saida. Official statistics make the area under oranges and lemons in Beirut 26,430 donum (about 24-3 sq. km.), and the weight of fruit 21,078,000 okes (about 26,680 tons). There are no corresponding figures for the Jerusalem province, but the area under cultivation must be at least as large, and the weight produced is probably considerably greater. The Aleppo vilayet is comparatively unimportant in this respect. Large quantities, to the value of about 8,000,000 frs., representing perhaps half the total crop, are exported, especially oranges from Jaffa. During the war the plantations have suffered severely, particularly in the Jaffa neighbourhood, partly from locusts, but still more from the failure of irrigation. Fortunately, orange-trees mature quickly, and the groves could be restored within a few years.
Of other cultivated fruit trees, statistics are available only for the Aleppo vilayet, where in 1914 there were reckoned to be 1,314,520 fig trees, yielding 34,038,780 okes (43,080 tons); 289,021 apple trees, yielding 911,250 okes (1,153 tons); 105,350 pistachio trees, yielding 811,125 okes (1,026 tons); and smaller numbers of pear, peach, apricot, pomegranate, black mulberry, almond, and walnut trees. Other trees which occur are quince, plum, cherry, hazelnut (especially about Hama and Damascus), and carob, while in the Jordan valley grow date palms, hananas, and cactus figs. The carob-fruit (known as locusts) is partly exported for spirit manufacture, partly converted into syrup for home consumption. The chief fruit crops are apricots, especially about Damascus, where quantities are dried or made into paste, figs, of which a few are dried exported, pomegranates, pistachios, almonds, and walnuts. Pistachios, which are cultivated in the vilayet of Aleppo, were exported in
