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138 ARMENIA AND THE NEAR EAST
comparatively speaking, a short one (j£ months), cotton
growing does well, as already mentioned (p. 130) on these
plains, and the area under cultivation increases considerably
every year. The cost of sowing and of the labour employed
in cultivating the cotton is estimated at 120 gold roubles,
or somewhat more, per hectare (2^ acres), including payment
for the work done by the peasant and his family, while the
corresponding gross income from the cotton is about 230-330
gold roubles ; this gives a net income of from 1 10 to 210 gold
roubles (between £11 SS. and £11 ios.) per hectare.
In due course we came to the site of the old town of Sarda
rabad, where the most noticeable feature was a large ruined
fortress, situated on the edge of the desert of Sardarabad,
which extends for many miles westward. We drove on to the
railway-station, which is not far away. Close to this was a
Near East Relief station for more than a thousand orphan
boys, who by now had grown into young men. They were
to cultivate a stretch of country which had been allotted to
them by the State, and which could be irrigated by means
of the newly constructed canal, running from the Arax, and
known as the Little Sardarabad Canal.
We had, of course, to go over the factory for cleansing the
cotton, where, as I have previously mentioned, 80,000 poods
(1,300,000 kilos) are now being cleansed per annum, while
the quantity is steadily rising year by year.
We had breakfast at the American settlement ; and it was
particularly refreshing to get a drink of fine Armenian wine
after the long dusty drive in that sweltering heat.
Among the men who were collected here I saw various
types, from the purely Armenoid dark type with long hooked
nose, narrowing face, and dark, highly pigmented complexion,
to types that were almost Nordic. I particularly noticed one
young fellow with light hair and beard, a fair complexion,
and a face which might well have been Scandinavian. He
reminded me most of the Swedish stonemasons of whom we
see so many in Norway, a type which I believe is also en
countered in North Russia. I was assured that he was a
pure Armenian, and that fair individuals are not uncommon in
Armenia. But one cannot tell to what extent there may have
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