Palestine]
stones, still preponderate. Steam and motor mills are usually small, working with one or two pairs of stones, which grind 200-500 kg. an hour; large up-to-date installations are quite exceptional. The two most important are at Beirut, where the milling industry is of recent growth, and has been encouraged by the railway, which has facilitated the transport of wheat from the Hauran. At Damascus, on the other hand, which once supplied the Lebanon, there has been a corresponding decline, as is also the case at Jerusalem, which, owing to the Haifa railway, no longer receives the same quantity of grain from across the Jordan. Milling in the coastal district is, however, especially open to the competition of European flour. Village mills commonly work for hire, grinding the corn brought for a small money fee or a percentage of the flour.
Of wheat products other than flour, starch, which is used for native foods and sweetmeats, is made in a number of small factories at Aleppo and Damascus, which turn out 2,000,000-3,000,000 kg. a year; there is some export to other parts of Turkey and to Egypt. Macaroni, for which the hard Syrian wheat is particularly well suited, is made in a German factory at Jaffa, and at Jerusalem and Beirut, but is not in demand except among Europeans.
Wine and spirit industry. The fabrication of alcoholic liquor is subject to a duty of 15 per cent. of the value of the product, one-half being repayable on exportation. Both the native raki and ordinary wine are made; the former, most of which is consumed locally, chiefly in the Damascus and Aleppo vilayets; the latter, which is mostly exported, in the Lebanon, the vilayet of Beirut, and the mutessariflik of Jerusalem. The largest producers of wine are the Society of Jewish Vine-growers at Rischon le Zion near Jaffa, who own capacious cellars at that village and at Sichron Jacob, near Haifa, and annually make 30,00040,000 hectolitres of wine and spirits from the grapes
