Show LICORICE HARVEST IN SYRIA gathered la in backs bachs and carried cardon on camela to the seaboard for export in a series ceries of articles describing the planting cultivation preparation for market and transplantation of licorice root appearing in the pharmaceutical era there is the following interesting descriptive bit in biggi digging 1 g licorice root in syria the usual way is to start a trench the length of the place to be dug du over about two feet in length and work from that each man placing in in a pile the root he has dug and at the end of the day or longer time it is taken to the scales weighed and paid for at a specified rate per pound an allowance is always made for the dirt that clings to the roots the root iq i then spread out for few days to slightly dry and piled in stacks about three feet wide and four or five feet high rounded off at the top in order to shed rain and the piles are narrow enough to prevent heating at the end of the rainy season the root is spread out to dry for about two months being turned over from time to time during which process all the adhering earth dries and falls off leaving it clean and ready for transport to the point of shipment it is then put into canvas sacks each containing from two hundred to two hundred and fifty pounds two sacks being a load for a camel or a mule for the transportation of the root fro from inthe the place where dug to the port of shipment varying from two to five fire days journey a contract is 3 usually made with some arab or bedouin sheik for a certain amount of cantara of about five hundred pounds each at a certain price lie he to furnish camels and men and the owner to furnish and fill the sacks about fifty camels go in in one caravan or drove for which five men are sufficient sometimes if one hundred camels are used the caravan goes in sections one man ridin riding a donkey leads the first camel and the rest follow tho the leader while the other men walk lic keeping any camel from straying or lagging too far behind they usually start early in the morning and go ten or fifteen miles when a halt is made the loads are taken off and the camels are arc allowed to browse on the thorn or other bushes for three erfour or four hours hour then loaded aga again inand and a about 0 out the same distance traveled when they are again unloaded and the night is spent in the open air and an early start made the next morning and so on until the seaboard is reached where they are unloaded the root is weighed the sacks emptied and returned to be again refilled in the fields for another trip on the euphrates and tigris the root is obtained near the banks of the rivers and after being properly dried is loaded in bulk on native boats called bungalows buga lows carrying from fifty to one hundred tons which float down the river or sail if the wind is ir favorable or at t times are towed by men as far down 1 as Bas Ilas where the root is unloaded and pressed in bales ready for |