Palestine]
from Tripoli, Saida, and Beirut have not shown a corresponding growth, there being a difference of only about 50,000 cases between 1909 and 1913, but a further development of the exports from that region appears likely with the extension of this form of culture, which is tending to replace that of mulberry trees. Tobacco-planting is similarly increasing, with a corresponding effect on export, which from the BeirutTripoli-Latakia district amounted to 986 tons in 1913, as against 671 tons in 1912 and 689 in 1911. Silk production, on the other hand, in spite of the excellence of the silk, is generally regarded as on the wane, although in the year before the war a good crop and a large French demand led to an increased export. The export figures for cocoons and raw silk in 1910-13 were:
| 1911. | 1910. | 1912. | 1913. | ||
| Beirut and Tripoli | bales | 5,075 | 3,997 | 2,760 | 10,900 |
| Alexandretta | tons | 328 | 353 | 258 | 328 |
Beirut exports of native silk or part-silk fabrics, however, had a marked decline in 1913, reaching only 3,198 bales, or less than half the average for the three preceding years. Exports of wool, which now go mostly from Tripoli, have advanced materially during the same period, as shown by the following figures:
| 1911. | 1910. | 1912. | 1913. | ||
| Beirut and Tripoli | bales | 4,411 | 10,023 | 10,750 | 19,300 |
| Alexandretta | tons | 555 | 349 | 165 | 42 |
If a ton is taken as roughly equivalent to three bales, the combined figures in bales will be 6,076, 11.070, 11,245, 19,426. Soap production is only partly depen-
