'Military report on Tehran and adjacent Provinces of North-West Persia (including the Caspian Littoral)' [‎99r] (202/610)

The pastoral portion is migratory between “ Qishlaq ”
aad “ Yailaq ”, and in the Caspian provinces, the richest stock
owning districts, between “Qishlaq,” “ Miyanband ” (inter
mediate spring and autumn pastures) and “ Yailaq.”
From the Elburz, Masuleh, Talish and Khalkhal highlands,
and even from Khamseh and Kazvin, a considerable part of
the population migrates to the Caspian lowlands in winter,
and vice versa many Mazandaranis and Gilakis migrate to the
hills in summer.
The distribution of population varies very greatly, its den- Distribution^
sity or sparsity depending on several causes, the most funda
mental of which is water. 1 Unirrigated crops dependent
on the rainfall are produced in the Caspian provinces, and in
certain favoured districts of the plateau, notably Khalkhal
and Khamseh, but generally cultivation depends on irrigation,
and, with the exception of the barren mountain ranges where it
is limited to the narrow valleys, is possible wherever water
for irrigation is available.
Water is therefore the prime factor determining the size of
the cultiveable area and of the population which it can support.
The water supply in turn, as has already been described on pages
145-6, depends on the accumulation of snow on the high
mountain ranges, and in the Caspian provinces on the rivers
maintained by the heavy rainfall on the Northern slopes of
the Elburz. The population consequently is thickest on the
plains of sufficient altitude themselves to be fertilized by the
snow, or adjacent to these ranges, and scantiest on lowlands
at a distance from them.
The most thickly populated districts in the area, probably Caspian low-
in the whole of Persia, with the exception perhaps of Urumieh lands -
before 1915, are the deltas formed at the mouth of the Caspian
rivers, the water of which is utilized for rice irrigation. In
the absence of census statistics it is impossible to estimate
the density of the population, but from the meagre data avail
able there would appear to be between 70 and 100 inhabitants
per square mile.
The villages vary in size, e.q., the plain of Mazandaran
contains many villages of 200 to 300 houses, whereas Tunakabun
is thickly dotted with small villages averaging 20 houses.
In Gilan the villages are rather more numerous and smaller,
than in Mazandaran. The proximity of the villages to each
1 i.e., of cotton, sugar and vegetables but not of rice, which requires irrigation,
in the lowlands, and of wheat and barley in the highlands. Details about these-
crops are given in Chapter VII, para. D, Agriculture.