Through deserts and oases of central Asia

by Ella Sykes; Sir Percy Sykes

Donkeys are found in thousands and take the place of the wheelbarrow and the cart in England, besides carrying the bulk of the internal trade. Camels, of the two-humped or Bactrian species, are highly esteemed, especially by the Kirghiz, as they are not affected by cold or deep snow, and can cross rivers that ponies have to swim. Cattle-breeding is carried on mainly in the mountains and in the wooded tracts along the courses of the rivers. The animals are small, and are bred for milk and for ploughing. Sheep are usually of the fat-tailed species, but in the southern districts there is also a short-haired breed. All animals, as a rule, are miserably thin owing to the almost entire absence of grazing.

I think it may be useful to select a typical farmer and study his life closely; for by this means we shall get down to the bed-rock of definite fact, which is preferable to vague generalizations about agriculture. Isa Haji, the subject of this sketch, was a farmer, aged 75, who lived not far from the city wall. Helped by two of his five sons, aged 18 and 16 respectively, he farmed 40 mows, or about six acres of land, which is the average size of a farm close to Kashgar. Here the manure obtained from the city enables the whole of the land to be cultivated at once, whereas farther off, where little manure is available, the farms are larger because a part of the land must always be allowed to lie fallow. One half of the Haji’s land was devoted to lucerne clover, the remainder being sown with millet, wheat, rice, cotton, melons and linseed. As a rule only one crop a year was taken off the land; but millet, carrots and turnips were sown after the wheat crop; in this case the millet did not ripen, but was valuable as green forage; the clover was cut four times in the year. In one corner of the farm were willow trees, which were pollarded every four years to serve as fuel for the owners. Isa Haji, being an old man, merely assisted in watering the fields, while his sons did all the ploughing, harvesting and threshing. His two eldest sons kept a grain-shop in Russian Turkestan, the third was a bricklayer, and the others, when not at work on the farm, earned sixpence a day as labourers. The Haji owned a yoke of plough-oxen and four donkeys, the former being fed on cotton-seed and the latter on millet. His agricultural implements included a primitive plough, a harrow, mattocks of two sizes, sickles, zambils or hurdles for carrying earth, a stone roller for threshing rice and a shovel for winnowing. Manure, consisting of horse and cow droppings, night soil and ashes, was bought in the city at the rate of threepence per donkey load, and used freely on the land, which was a rich alluvial loam; the frequent storms also deposited layers of dust which were regarded as good for the crops.

The house, which Isa Haji owned and had built room by room as he could afford it, at a total cost (including the land) of £50, covered a square of sixty feet. The guest-room, in which he lived during the summer and in which the meals were cooked and served, was about twenty feet square and was lighted by a hole in the roof. A mud platform covered with felts, on which the family slept, occupied a prominent position, and the chief piece of furniture was a carved box, which held clothes and served as a bedstead. Above it was a shelf full of Russian teapots. Off this room opened the store-room, in which grain was kept for winter consumption and which served as the living-room in winter. There was also a courtyard partly roofed in with matting during the summer, in which grew a shady tree, and this was the chief working room of the wife and daughters-in-law at that season. Here we noticed a cradle, a spinning-wheel and various pans. Two small rooms belonged to two unmarried sons, and the rest of the square contained stabling, an oven and a store for dry fodder.

THE SONS OF ISA HAJI PLOUGHING.

Page 304.

The home was managed by the wife and her three daughters-in-law, who cooked the food, looked after the children and made the clothes. They did not work in the fields, but spun the cotton into yarn, which they wove into the rough white calico of which most of the clothing of the poorer classes is fashioned.

The staple food of the family was bread made from millet, a grain that is held to be more sustaining than wheat or rice. Isa Haji’s large family consumed all his share of the crops, except the lucerne and some of the melons, turnips, carrots and linseed, which were sold. The oil of the linseed was used for cooking and lighting.

The chief meal of these peasant-farmers was eaten at sunset and consisted of suyukash, a soup prepared from pieces of paste-like macaroni and vegetables boiled in water. In the morning they took tea with cream and salt, and fruit and bread were eaten at odd hours. Meat, generally beef, appeared on their table only once a week. There was plenty of this rude fare, supplemented by slices of pumpkin eaten hot and by other delicacies; and Isa Haji’s sons appeared healthy, their teeth being noticeably fine and sound. They said that they suffered a good deal from lack of warmth in the winter, as charcoal was dear and had to be used sparingly. They placed a bowl of lighted charcoal under a wooden frame, over which a quilt was thrown, and the family sat by day and slept by night under this covering, with their feet towards the centre.

Isa Haji had been the tenant of the farm for more than ten years. It included three small properties belonging to three Kashgar merchants. Two-thirds of the lucerne, amounting in value to about five pounds, and one half of the other crops, were paid over as rent. He had no security of tenure, and could be turned out at will, but the prospect of this appeared to him unlikely, and he expressed satisfaction with his lot.