I have already described the State Office of Soil Products (p. 73), which buys the grain crop and thus controls prices, and the generous working of agricultural credit. Neither of these involved more than direct face-to-face relationships with minorofficials, and both institutions were taken very much for granted.
The much more formidable problems of raising technical efficiency, and thus productivity, were hardly being tackled seriously in the area in which I worked. Clean, good quality seed was provided on credit, help with disease control was available for both crops and animals, and stud bulls, stallions and rams were provided to improve local stock. Except perhaps for curative veterinary services for animals, on which people commented favourably, these services though accepted as of right, and even used to some extent, are regarded with scepticism and constant criticism. The villagers had no conception of the possibility of a revolution in their techniques and economy, and did not expect the government to produce one.
Village health services had even less impact, with one major exception. As in many other countries malaria has been virtually wiped out in Turkey. One village which had suffered had been Elbashï. Malaria control continued in I951 but quite divorced from other medical activities.
The main health interest of the villagers is in cures for current illness. Here the government did virtually nothing. Free hospital services existed in Kayseri but the resources were so limited that villagers did not even think of using them. When they wanted a doctor they had to go and find one in Kayseri. An official doctor resided in Bunyan (Fig. 2), but the village disregarded him. In Kayseri there were about fifty. The fare to Kayseri, the doctor's fee, and the expensive medicines, often involving injections, which were normally prescribed, provided a strong deterrent in all but urgent cases. If the cure was not noticeably and rapidly successful, the patient would try another doctor rather than go back to the first. The notion of a family doctor was completely lacking. The doctors, overwhelmed with