Cotton, mulberry and hemp

1916
Autumn

The third zone ^[1] contains even more crops. Among the field crops there is much cotton although it is encountered to a minor extent within the second zone as well. … These annuals give a pitiful impression: 20-30 cm, with a pair of leaves and few capsules. It is hard to tell directly whether there is a special kind of cotton here. The Pamiri botanical kind of cotton is referred to Gossypium herbaceum L. and it reminds one very much of a Turkestan or Persian strain, a cotton with closed capsules and short fibres. The harvest of this cotton is insignificant but the Pamiri are forced to be satisfied with it. The Pamiri dress in homemade woollens but are in great need of cotton fibres [for thread]. In the Pamirs flax is not grown for the fibres, although there is no reason not to do so. There is also extremely little hemp. In some villages there are stands of hemp among the fields of cotton and along the fences. At first I thought that this hemp was used for twine. Later it became evident that the hemp was sown to obtain hashish, thus replacing here the cultivation of poppies, forbidden by the Russian border guard.

Sesame for oil is cultivated on a small scale within the third zone together with castor beans, usually among crops of cotton of a pure Persian type.

The third zone is also rich in trees. There are many mulberry trees. There are trees even in villages where there is no arable soil. The mulberries, together with some apricot trees here and there, appear to be the main sources of food. The paper mulberry ^[2] plays an enormous role within the second zone and the upper portion of the third one. It replaces wheat and barley for which there is not space enough. The fruits of the mulberry tree are dried and ground and in that form they are used for consumption not only as sweets but also instead of bread. I brought samples of such mulberry bread, so-called ‘tut-pikht’, from the Pamirs. It is a little sweet but has great nutritional qualities, keeps for several months and does not require baking. ‘Uryuk,’ dried apricots, is also a food but is used more as a sweetmeat.

At 2000 metres altitude one begins to meet grapevines, the fruits of which usually do not ripen fully. This completes the composition of the cultivated flora in the Pamirs. There are no vegetable gardens.

1. We are coming down from the higher reaches, where only barley grew, into the valley edges. [↩]
2. Is this Broussonetia papyrifera? Hard to know, as other sources make little mention of its use as an important food. [↩]

Show on map