The Jewish Agency for Palestine
Institute of Agriculture and Natural History AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION
B u l l e t i n 10.
THE FELLAH'S FARM by I. Elazari-Volcani Director Agricultural Experiment Station.
Tel-Aviv, September 1930. from the Hebrew Joel-Hazalr Printing Press; by Zincography M.Pikovsky.
PREFACE. This monograph, of which the descriptive chapters were published in Hebrew in the year 1928, is intended both as a sequel to the study which preceded it on "The Transition from Primitive to Modern Agriculture," and as an introduction to a series of studies of various types of farms in the grain beit of Palestine. Some of these studies have already been published in Hebrew, while others are now ready for the press.
The chief types of farms in question are: the grain farm, the dairy farm, the farm in transition, and the monocultural modern farm. Descriptions of these types are given not for the sake of description per se, but as bases for analytical comparison between them. Certain tendencies and factors are emphasized, some points being described in detail; while others, which are not required for the purpose in mind, are passed over more summarily.
The tendency in Palestinian agriculture is to change from old forms to new. The function of the transformation process is the uprooting of what is bad in the old methods and the absorbing what is good from the new ones. But the reality is not always so exact. Uprooting what is bad in the old is apt to involve \he uprooting of the good at the same time. Not everything new that supersedes the old is beneficial, and often it happens that discrimination is not exercised. We find at times within
III
the old methods, which are based on ancient traditions, worthwhile elements meriting use in the accepted new systems. The ideal practice is to seek out the good elements in both tradition and modern practice, and to amalgamate them. When agriculture is found in a transitional phase, two factors are at work, namely, mechanics and biology. The first - mechanics replaces primitive implements by complicated machinery. The second involves the improvement of breeds and seeds, increased productivity of the soil by the use of manure and fertilizer and. increase of returns by changes in the cropping system. The first method requires a considerable investment of capital, but the second can be introduced gradually, at a small cost, and withoutsudden and radical changes. The problem here is: in how far can a primitive farm be improved during its early transition stages by the use of biological methods alone, which do not require sums to be invested beyond the means of the primitive cultivator, and which do not suddenly force him out of his accustomed habits and methods of work. These problems are not peculiar to Palestine alone, but apply to all Oriental countries. In many respects Palestine may be regarded as a field of investigation and research. Within its borders, the oldest of the old and the newest of the new cross each other's paths: traditions going back thousands of years operate side by side with the latest technical achievements. Therefore, Palestine can play the same part in agricultural economics as an experiment field does in agricultural technique, the results being intended not only for its own benefit, but for application to agriculture on a large scale. This monograph deals with economic and technical problems only. Problems of agrarian policy and credit will be dealt with in a special study.
IV
In gathering data on which to base a scientific inquiry into the fellah's farming, peculiar hindrances are met with. The fellah is suspicious of everyone who tries to pump information out of him. His crops will increase or- diminish according to the supposed identity of his questioner. If the latter is suspected of being a Government tax collector, the yield will shrink to less than nothing. But if he is imagined to be a prospective purchaser of land or a bank agent, the crops will exceed anything to be expected from the most fertile regions. The facts change in the twinkling of an eye. In a certain instance, one questioning a fellah in this regard replied to him, 'if the crops are so small, we cannot allow you the credits we had intended." Whereupon a second fellah promptly appeared upon the scene, and pushing the first aside as a "dunce," asseverated that the yield was three or fourfold as large. The figures given in the present study are derived from the following direct sources: 1. The Palestine Land Development Company had large tracts of land in the Valley of Jezreel which were worked by tenant farmers until transferred to the new colonists. The threshing floor and the fields were supervised by watchmen in the -employ of the Company, and an exact record of the crops was kept from year to year. The records of ten years (1914-1923) for an area.of 10,000 dunams which were cultivated by 50 or 60 tenant farmers, have here been summarized. Mr. YochevedsonPevsner, chief superviser of this district, handed these records to the author each year, together with notes of his observations of the habits and customs of the tenant farmers. 2. The farms of Ben-Shemen and Huldah, which were administered by the author from 1909 to 1919, were like small
islands of modernity among the fellah farms. The fellahs' threshing floors were close beside our boundaries, and it was possible to determine the yield of their threshing floors exactly. Records of observations were made each year. Experiments, were also made with the methods of fellah cultivation. During the War, because the farm animals had been requisitioned, Ben Shemen was obliged to lease part of its land in the Jiills to fellahs. These fields continued to be supervised by the farm, and exact records were kept of their crops. A similar source of information was the settlement of Beer-Tuviah, where a group of labourers worked "under the direction of the writer. 3. Good relations with the Arab neighbours at the placesmentioned facilitated the gathering of data. The fellahs understood that the questioners had no motive but to study conditionsand to devise methods of increasing the yield. For the firsttime they saw the marvel of how the "sowing of salt increases the crops." For many years the writer's assistants gathered data, in various parts of the country. 4. At the Experiment Station at Gevath, the Division of Rural Economics co-operated with the Division of Agronomy on an. area of 250 dunams, which was divided into economic units. One of these, comprising 60 dunams, was turned over for cultivation to a fellah from a nearby village, and special records were kept of the results over a period of five years. In describing the working methods of the fellah, the writerhas relied on his own direct observations. The references toancient Jewish folklore are drawn from the Talmud and other primary sources, while those bearing on fellah folklore are all based on Prof. Gustav Dalmann's latest book, entitled "Arbeit und Sitten in Palastina."
VI
The author wishes to express his thanks to Mr. Yochevedson-Pevsner, and to Mr. Klivaner, assistant in the Division of Agronomy, for their constant aid in the assembling of material ; to Mr. Kostrinskyr assistant in the Division of Agronomy at Gevath, for keeping the records; to Mr. Ezrahi-Krishevsky, meteorologist of the Egyptian Government, for working up the meteorological data; and to Messrs. Sussman, assistant in the Division of Rural Economics, and Rosolio, secretary of the Institute, for their aid in arranging the statistical material.
Agricultural Experiment Station Division of Rural Economics. Tel-Aviv, Palestine July 1930.
I. E l a z a r i - V o l c a n i .
VII
CONTENTS
Chapter One.
WAITING FOR THE RAIN.
The ancient Hebrews used to divide the year into two definite periods - the season of the rain and the season of the sun. This division corresponds to the character of the country, which has no' transition periods of any length, like spring and autumn inother countries. From the.:middle-";of- Gheshv.an (October)'to .the middle of'Nisan (April); rain:.falls:.at intervalsfor .about-.forty-or:fifty, days, and' to /an; amount-.. of/from five hundred-to-six-hundred-millimetres. For seven.monthsthe-.country s is-dry-without-a' drop; of» rain,- '.and:: the /sun-- reigns', supreme.'.In' l -the Jordan -Valley-'the- rainy- days'.are-fewer/the: rainfall less,: and the:;days' of hoi sunshine^ more; numerous." In the.'Negeb the rainfall only amounts, to. from two; to three.hundred millimetres^, andeven this-is not regular every year. Years of drought in that district are- nothing unusual./
Summer winds. - The summer heat is tempered by winds that blow regularly from the sea from morning to evening. The soil as it becomes heated in the course of the day causes the layer of air upon it to rise, and the cool.air from the sea rushes in to fill its place. In the night the process is reversed. The earth cools more rapidly than the surface of the sea, and air currents are borne from it in the direction of the sea. Thus nature makes provision for alleviating the toil of the day and for assuring the repose of the night. In the mountain region and in the plain which is open to the sea these air currents sail along in the shape of light breezes in their two contrary directions. The prophet also refers to the "dry wind on the high places" (Jer., IV, 11). In the valley and in the clefts in the mountains, and especially in the valleys of the Jordan, these winds rage as if they were trying to break out of a prison, swirling round and round and raising clouds of dust. The burning east wind which blows from the Arabian desert for a few days in the year is not oppressive in the winter, but is exceedingly oppressive in the spring and summer, raising the temperature to 35-46°C.
The rainy season. - The rainy season is the time of water storage for animals and plants. The inhabitants of the mountain region dig cisterns in the rock for reservoirs, and the waters collected during the few rainy days in a deep hole, protected by the cover of a thick stone, supply man and beast during the whole long summer period. The Fellah stores up the rain in the layers of the soil itself all over his fields for the nourishing of his summer crops by breaking up its surface with his light plough and laying it open to^the rain, by preparing a good tilth before sowing, and by breaking up all the hard surface which forms after the later rains. Summer plants do not see a single drop of rain during the whole four months of their
growth. Only the heavy dew which tails at aignt tuicauw them. .On an average, dew falls on 64 out of 92 summer days (about 2/a). In the Jordan valley there is no dew either, and its products, such as sesame, do not thrive in unirrigated fields. Thus the loose layer (mulch) formed by the light "nail plough" protects- the moisture stored in the ground against excessive evaporation and preserves it for the benefit of the plant, just as the stone protects the water in reservoir for living creatures to drink.
The features of the soil. - The soil of the plain, which is light and easy to till, forms a comparatively short and quite narrow stretch extending parallel to the coast from Caesarea in the North to the village of Khan Yunnis in the South, its other side being formed by a zigzag line following the chain of the mountains. The soil of the Negeb which borders with the southern desert is also not heavy. On the other hand the whole of the plain and all the valleys are composed of heavy soil. The Shephelah, most of Sharon, the plain of Acre, the Valley of Jezreel, Upper and Lower Galilee, and the Valley of the Jordan- the soil of all these contains from thirty-five to forty percent of clay. When this soil is very moist it becomes highly compact; it sticks to the plough, dulling its edge, and the clods turned up by the plough hang on to one another and become solid blocks. Trying to walk over this heavy ground after rain is like putting on boots of clay which grow thicker at every step until by their weight they chain the wayfarer to the spot. On the other hand, when this ground is dried by the summer heat, it becomes as hard as brick*).
During the last four months of the summer the ground has a gloomy and. morose appearance. The blazing sun extracts from it the last remnants of moisture which are stored in it from the rainy season. The surface of the ground yawns and splits into clefts, like a tree split by the heat after it has lost
) See table 5 p. 20
its moisture. It looks like a chess-board the lines of which are crooked and so deep that the traveller may have a nasty fall in them. Even the soil which has been loosened and broken upby sesame ploughing is under the apparently unbroken surface full of clefts and ruptures, which, however, are not so deep and broad as those in the unploughed fields. The whole land looks as if it were prostrate and fainting from thirst, with ten thousand mouths open to catch a drop of water - the very emblem of thirst.
The first signs of rain. - From the beginning of Cheshvan (November) the tiller of the soil begins to scan the clouds and to wait for the rain. Animals and plants are exhausted by the summer drought. The heat begins to abate. The nights become cool. The sky which was of an unbroken blue throughout the summer begins to be covered with fleecy clouds. The twilight displays gorgeous colours. Expectations, however, are not always realised. Sometimes it is a case of "winds and vapour and norain." The land is blessed or cursed according as the rain falls or does not fail at the proper time. The "reward and punishment" of the chosen people in the promised land were not reserved for the future world, but were dispensed in this world, "And I shall give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, and thou shalt gather in thy corn, thy new wine and thine oil. And I shall give grass in thy field to^ thy cattle, and thou shalt eat and be satisfied. Take heed to yourselves lest your heart be deceived and ye go astray and serve other gods... And thy heavens upon thy head shall be as copper and the ground which is under thee as iron... The Lord shall make the rain of the land ashes and dust, from the heaven it shall come down upon thee until thou art destroyed." According to the Rabbis, God waters (he Land of Israel himself and the rest of the world through a deputy. And the keys which.
God keeps in his own hand and does not entrust to a deputy are those of the rain and the resurrection of the dead.
The rain in its time. - The fertilising rains are those which begin in Marcheshvan (November). The first day of rain, say the Rabbis, is like the day on which were created heaven- and earth. On that day he who has a field of his own says the blessing "Shehechayonu", he who has fields belonging both to himself and to others says "He who is good and doeth good", and he who has no field says "We give thanks to thee, 0 Lord our God, for every drop that thou hast sent down to us." The blessing is said from the time that there is a good quantity of water on the ground, and bubbles rise from the rain on the surface of the water, and travel to meet one another. The first rain is called "yoreh" because it tells (moreh) people to plaster their roofs, to bring in their produce, and to make preparations; also because it comes down (yored) gently, and does not sweep away the fruit or wash away the seeds or break the trees. With rain in its season the earth is neither drunk nor thirsty but it absorbs in moderation. When the rain is excessive it washes off the surface of the earth, which does not then yield its fruit. The benefit of the rain in the winter season depends upon its distribution. It was an accepted maxim in rabbinical times that the earth can only absorb the rainwater according to the degree- of its hardness. Torrential rains at the outset simply run off the surface of the baked, parched and thirsty ground; they do not penetrate right into it, and do not fertilise it. Only the surface is moistened, and the lower layer is left with its clefts as it was. When the rain is delayed, those plants which are commencing to take root in a hard and dry layer suffer, and they are in danger of dying or becoming stunted. When the ground has been thoroughly, moistened in its upper layers, the torrential rains run off from it, since it is too parched to absorb
them, not merely is all this water lost, but it lays the plants flat, it carries away the superficial layer which has been tilled and fertilised, and spoils whole portions of the fields. Particularly severe damage is done by the torrential rains in a low country when they sweep down from the mountains. Neither the ground hardened by the heat of summer nor the ground moistened in the middle of the winter can absorb the rain except when it comes down gently and is distributed over a long period. The ground receives more benefit from a rainfall of four hundred mms. distributed over a long period than from six hundred coming in heavy falls and at short intervals.
The "Malkosh" is the latter rain. When it comes as it should do, it falls in a peculiar way, in straight lines as if with a plummet. Sometimes the large drops catch the rays of the sun and assume a peculiar colour. The latter rain also comes down with a special rhythm, the drops seeming to dance upon the ground.
Distribution of rain. - Marked differences in the rainfall are observed even in one district and in places distant only a few miles from one another. Sometimes the clouds will pass over the fields of one village and pour their blessing upon those of another close by, so that what'is a good year for one may in certain cases be a bad year for the other.
The precipitation, rain and dew, may sometimes differ in one and the same district as regards quantity or seasonal distribution to such an extent as to decide the character of the farm and of crop rotations, whether there is to be cereal farming, dairying, summer kerab- or black fallow. On a tract totalling 30,000 dunams, for instance, within the Nuris Block, it has seemed necessary, at any rate for the present, to introduce three systems of crop rotations. At one spot, indeed, just before Beit Shan, summer crops are scanty, while they are medium in
another and above medium in a third. On a 50,000 dunam tract in. central Esdraelon, between Nahalal and Afuleh, the harvests vary not only because of the difference in the holding capacity of the soil but because of the difference in precipitation. In' one place clover will give three crops, in another one or perhaps two, and not too abundant at that. Nor must it be forgotten that the keeping of cows for dairying depends to a considerable degree on the success of the clover crop.
The withholding of rain is one of the worst plagues of the country. The period of growth is thereby shortened. The months of Tebeth and Shebat (January and February) are the coldest in the year, and- growth is particularly delayed by the cold of the nights. The success of the crop depends upon the lenght of the period allowed for growth, and is conditioned by the time when the cold comes -whether when the plants have already managed to strike root and can therefore resist the cold, or whether it attacks them when they are still tender. Sowing at the end of Cheshvan (November) allows the plants time for development before the cold nights of Tebeth (January) come. Late sowing falls just in the cold time. The lack of latter rain as a rule bodes evil. If there was not much rain in the winter time, the winter plants will not find enough moisture for their sustenance. The ground splits under them and rends asunder the bed of their roots, and even those that are left of them are as it were imprisoned in thick clods, and in this way they are cut off from their sources of sustenance. A rainy year also hampers their development because the upper layer of soil becomes dry in any case, and the stalks on which the sun beats from above are not able to draw sufficient moisture from below, and the consequence is that as they have no opportunity to swell out they become shrivelled and stunted, when they are full-grown, even if the stalk in its early stages reaches a fair height.
Prayers for rain. - The rains themselves are divided into falls - first, second and third. The Hebrew word for this - "rebiah" - itself symbolises the fructification of the earth when it comes into contact with the rain. In the days of Herod - so we are told - rain used to come down in the night, then in the morning the wind blew, the clouds scattered, the sun came out and the earth dried. In the good days, according to the Talmud, the rain used to come on Wednesday and Saturday. The rain used to come down in the night, and the next day the wind would blow, the clouds scattered and the sun came out, and everyone arose to his work, thus showing that they were doing the work of Heaven. The Rabbis say that since the day of the destruction of the Temple the rains have not come down from the "good storehouse." In ancient times fasts were decreeded on account of the delay of the rainfall. If the seventeenth of Marcheshvan (November) arrived and rain had not yet fallen, the students of the Beth-Hamidrash alone used to fast Monday, Thursday, and Monday. If the New Moon of Kislev (December) arrived and rain had not yet fallen, the Beth-Din ordered the whole community to fast three days, Monday, Thursday and Monday. If these went by and there was still no answer, tne Beth-Din ordered three more fasts, Monday, Thursday and Monday. During the whole time of these three fasts they were forbidden to do work by day, to do more business than was absolutely necessary, to build or to plant, and to give greetings to one another; they were to be like men who were in disgrace with the Almighty. If Nisan (April) came and the sun reached the beginning of the constellation of the Ox, they did not fast any more, because rain at that season was nothing but a curse, seeing that it had not come down since the beginning of the year.
On each day of the seven last fasts, following service of prayer used to be observed. The Ark was brought out into the
public square, and all the people collected there, wearing sack cloth They put ashes on the Ark and on the Sefer Torah in order to increase their sorrow and to humble their hearts. One of the people took some of the ashes and put it on the head of the Nasi and of the Ab-beth-din in the place where the Tefihn rested, so that they should feel shame and repent, and each one took and placed some on his own head. After that they used to call on a "Zaken" and "Chacham" to rise among them while they sat; if there was not among them one who was both «Chacham1' and «Zaken" they called on a «Chacham"; if there was neither "Zaken" nor «Chacham" they called on one with a good presence. He addressed to them words of reproof as follows: "My brethren, it is not sackcloth and not fasting that will produce the desired effect, but repentance and good deeds; for so we find in the case of the men of Nineveh that it is not said -and God saw their sackcloth and their fasting', but 'God saw their deeds.'" After this one had finished his admonition, they stood up in prayer and appointed as a reader one who was fitted to pray on these fasts. And this is the kind of man who was fitted to pray: one who was well versed in prayer and practised in the reading of the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings; one with several young children and no money, but who did hard work in the field; one who did not count a bad character among his sons or the occupants.of his house or all his relatives who were connected with him, but whose house was free from sin; one who never had a bad name in his early days; a man of humility and well liked by the public, and one who had a good voice and could sing tunes. If with all these qualities he was a «Zaken" as well, he suited perfectly; if he was not a "Zaken", since he had these qualities, he was fitted to pray. After prayers all the people went out to the cemetery and prayed there. If rain began to fall while they were
fasting, it depended on the state of the ground how long they should wait before breaking their fast. If the ground was very dry they waited till the rain had penetrated in a handbreadth; if it was in a medium state, two handbreaths and if it was tilled,, three handbreadths.
Ancient customs surviving at the present day. -Like in ancient times, most parts of the country are dependent rather ,011 the rain from heaven that on the chasm that yawns beneath. The thought of the cultivator is fixed as in a vice within the eternal contradiction between the two Titans that alternately rule the land - sun and rain. It is according to them that he divides the seasons and lays out his fields, it is they that form the centre of his prayers. The notions of "Shitta" and "Saiff" that are prevalent among the fellaheen correspond exactly to the notions of sunny days, rainy days and drought. The notion of "days of fullness" has been preserved intact. (Jemot ha-hamma, jemot hag-gesliamim, jeme garid, jeme rebia). Though the worship of Baal has come to naught, his name has not dropped away with the passage of centuries and beliefs. "Ard baal" and "Ard Shaki" are current expressions with the Fellah of to-day, just as in the Mishnaic period. "Beit-ha-Baal" and "Beit-ha-Shalhin" served to distinguish between the land belonging to heaven and that belonging to the pit. The prophets of Baal were put to the sword. The Lord of Hosts was avenged by Elijah on the brook Kishon, when they had proved themselves unable to bring down the rain either with their cries or by cutting themselves with knives and lancets till the blood gushed out upon them. Up to this very day the soil bears the name of Baal. "Rain is the Lord of the soil", says the Talmud. And even now the rain of heaven is regarded as a bridegroom coming forth to fructify the earth, his bride. "The rain in its time" is the greatest of heaven's blessings 10 11
even to-day. The signs of the times may have changed, but not the times themselves, nor yet the notions of the times. "El Vusmi", nothingelse than a translation of the idea of Yore (early rain) as it stands in Saadya the Sage, exists in the every-day speech of the Fellah. They distinguish between the first early rain beginning five days before the festival of St. George in Lydda, and the latter early rains coming a fortnight later. "The Yore in its time" falls on that very days, i. e. from the 3rd to the 16th of November. The entire of period lasts from October 18 to November 18, roughly corresponding to the month of Heshvan, or its 8th day, as it was fixed in the Mishnaic period. When the skies withhold their blessings, they try to bring them down by prayers and supplications, by cries, exhortations, and sacrifices. Each district has its local rites. There may be a procession of girls in the twilight after the evening meal, beating empty petrol tins containing pebbles, in. order to make even more noise. They knock at the doors of the houses, and are sprinkled with water. An old woman marches before them, a handmill on her head, on top of which a rooster shut in a basket crows lustily to call forth divine compassion. A pitcher of water occasionally replaces the hand-mill. A white cock and a black hen are carried along and beaten at intervals so that^ they may cry all the louder. Grain and flour sifters are carried on the head to symbolise the famine threatening man and beast. Sometimes an old woman riding a donkey backwards and carrying an infant grinds an empty hand-mill. These figures are meant to personify innocence. The old woman can no longer do wrong, while the infant has not yet tasted sin. The rooster represents the domestic animals.
Elsewhere they carry an effigy through the streets, water being sprinkled thereon from within the houses. The effigy is dressed like a woman. It is made like a cross, a pitch fork 13
12
fastened to a beam. A white kerchief marks the place of the head. All these customs, as Dalmann relates, conform with the prevailing religious belief. They are an outgrowth of ancient customs dating from the times of the Baalim, of self-lacerations and sacrifices and limping at the hip. The processions, the noise, the cries, all are of the essence of the ceremonial. The turning of the mill is expected to produce a change in the weather. The pouring out of the water is not a mere gesture, but is meant to set the higher powers in motion, to draw the compassion of God to all his creatures, man and beast, woman, children, the crowing cock, the mewing cat, the bleating sheep. The ancient Jews, monotheistic as they were, rejected the idea of any intermediary between them and their God, for the Lord of the World alone causes the wind to blow and brings down the rain and the dew himself, having dominion over the fruit of the soil neither through an angel nor an emissary. Their needs were symbolised by the ceremonial incidental to worship in the Temple: the joy of the drawing of water, the libation of water, and circuits about the altar. After the destruction of the Temple these ceremonies were transferred to the Synagogues in the prayers for rain and dew, the harvest festival or the Feast of Tabernacles, and the festival of freedom, or Passover, the knocking with sheaves, and the going round in a ring. These ancient customs are the basis of the Fellah's prayers for rain. The ceremonial part of worship has dwindled. If rain is not forthcoming they content themselves with holding prayers in Mosques and schools. In the Jerusalem Mosque there are special prayers for rain. After the prayer the cantor turns his robe to produce a change in the weather. Occasionally they carry out a public ploughing ceremony in the presence of a priest or layman. The gathering wears its clothes on the wrong side. 14
Now as of old the land still depends on the bounty of heaven in most of its districts. Now as of old the greatest wisdom in the tilling of the ground lies in the knowledge of the tiller how to improve it. The secret of this improvement is the skilful storing of the water in the layers of the earth, and the economic use of it. Then with proper ploughing and with a good cropping system the husbandman can establish his dominion over the earth and compel it to respond to his demands.
15
Chapter Two.
SEASONS OF AGRICULTURAL WORK.
The festivals of Israel are fixed for the most part according to the seasons of agricultural labour: the counting of the Omer from the feast of Passover, the feast of first fruits, and the feast of in-gathering. Now as of old the work of the threshing floor finishes in the farm of the Fellah at the end of Tishri (October). From harvest time to in-gathering man and beast pass from the confinement of the clay hut to the unconfined threshing-floor under the open sky. That is then where life throbs both by day and night. The harvest passes, the summer ends, the threshing finishes, and the threshing floor is emptied of living creatures and the last remnants of produce. Then commences the great work of household renovation, the women taking command. It is they who gather dry grass in the fields and bring it home on their shoulders, who mix mud for mortar and crush to powder the animal dung when it has been dried.. A mixture of these materials with stubble serves for plastering the roofs and the walls. Under the diligent hands of the women the walls are clothed with new coats of plaster. The low coneshaped straw-stacks are renovated with a new coat of moist plaster. The men after the hard work of the threshing-floor now sit with their hands folded and chat idly, raising the while their eyes to heaven- appealingly; for without the early rain thehusbandman cannot go out to his work in the field.
The first rain. - The first early rain which deserves the name moistens the soil to a depth of about 20 nuns. It is only
16
then that the Feilah can begin to open up the field. The work commences with a procession of the.elders of the village to the field to measure out to each one his portion. The measurement is made with an ox-goad about two and a half metres long, or with a rope. They then fix the individual plots, the plot 'extending the length of the field to which each Fellah is assigned with a breadth of one to three ox-goads. When the measurement has been finished, the time of ploughing begins. The plough of the Fellah is light, corresponding to his beast. The combined strength of the two of them cannot make so much as a deep scratch in the dry soil left by the harvest, much less peel off the crust of the ground. Consequently as a rule the Fellah does not plough the ground as it is left after the harvest, but only after the rain has fallen. He is practically compelled to do this by the nature of his implements and the composition of his soil, which for the most part is heavy. Only where the dry ground left after the harvest is light the Fellah does not wait for the rain to open his field. In such places there are some who even sow before the early rain (Afir). Many, however, wait with their sowing till the rain comes not only because before then it is impossible to sow, but also to allow time for the sprouting of the weeds, which they can destroy with the ploughing, thus assuring the cultivated plants against the attacks of the noxious ones.
Opening furrows. - The opening up of the field is done with rough ploughing. The furrows are open and are usually distant 20 centimetres from one another. The object of this is to open up the tight ground to the penetration of the rain, which will be retained in the open furrow and so water the smooth surface. Ground which is ploughed finely with narrow and close furrows is not so receptive of the rain as when it is ploughed with open furrows.
17
then that the Fellah can begin to open up the field. The work commences with a procession'of the elders of the village to the field to measure out to each one his portion. The measurement is made with an ox-goad about two and a half metres long, or with a rope. They then fix the individual plots, the plot extending the length of the field to which each Fellah is assigned with a breadth of one to three ox-goads. When the measurement has been finished, the time of ploughing begins. The plough of the Fellah is light, corresponding to his beast. The combined strength of the two of them cannot make so much as a deep scratch in the dry soil left by the harvest, much less peel off the crust of the ground. Consequently as a rule the Fellah does not plough the ground as it is left after the harvest, but only after the rain has fallen. He is practically compelled to do this by the nature of his implements and the composition of his soil, which for the most part is heavy. Only where the dry ground left after the harvest is light the Fellah does not wait for the rain to open his field. In such places there are some who even sow before the early rain (Afir). Many, however, wait with their sowing till the rain comes not only because before then it is impossible to sow, but also to allow time for the sprouting of the weeds, which they can destroy with the ploughing, thus assuring the cultivated plants against the attacks of the noxious ones. Opening furrows. - The opening up of the field is done with rough ploughing. The furrows are open and are usually distant 20 centimetres from one another. The object of this is to open up the tight ground to the penetration of the rain, which will be retained in the open furrow and so water the smooth surface. Ground which is ploughed finely with narrow and close furrows is not so receptive of the rain as when it is ploughed with open furrows. 17
T a b l e 3.
Season of sowing. - The time of sowing is when the rain penetrates to such a depth that the plough does not touch dry ground. Winter plants, viz. beans, karsena, and early lentils, barley and wheat, are sown by broadcasting over the open furrows. The plough is then passed crosswise over the field so as to cover over the seeds which have been sown with a fine ploughing, with narrow and close furrows. The ancient Hebrews distinguished between rough ploughing and fine ploughing, between the furrows for opening and furrows for sowing, between ploughing after the harvest and ploughing after the rains. These ancient terms are preserved in the language of the fellah till the present day, to denote his operations. System of ploughing. - The Arab plough is like the ancient Hebrew plough. The latter, however, seems to have been more complicated. Its distinguishing characteristic is that it cuts the surface soil and does not turn it up. It performs, very slowly it is true, but very thoroughly, all the functions for which a combination of modern machines is required - a plough, a roller and a harrow. Its great virtues are that it does not bring up. clods, that it does not press or crush the moist earth, .but flits' as it were over the ground with its coulter which resembles a duck's foot in its base, and that it penetrates the ground with its point which is sharp and long like the head of a spear. It produces the requisite loose and broken crust by itself without the aid of other implements. The Fellah has only one garment which he wears both day and night. From the point of view of cleanliness and comfort this of course leaves much to be desired. But the ploughing of the Fellah is above reproach. His field, prepared for sowing, is never inferior to that prepared by the most perfect implements, and sometimes it even surpasses all others. The defect lies only in the slowness which calls for modification in .order to adapt the working process to the rate of speed in our time.
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Not every Fellah is accustomed to clear out and weed his field. Those who do so look chiefly for the darnel, the thorn and the mustard which grow among the winter crops. A good Fellah devotes his whole energy to preparing good the rotation crops (kerab); in this way he automatically destroys the weeds and prevents them from injuring the winter crops sown in these fields. The weeds which are left after the ploughing among the kerab are plucked up by hand or dug up with a hoe after in the months of Adar and Nisan (March and April). The sowing of winter crops, leguminous and cereal, goes on from Kislev to Shebat (December to February), and is determined by the time when the rain falls and by its distribution. The time of sowing varies in different parts of the country. It is eailiest in the Negeb. In the Shefelah and in Sharon it is earlier than in the Emek, and there it is earlier than in Upper Galilee. After the sowing of the winter crops is finished, the preparation of the summer crops commences. This is done in various ways. Preparation of the kerab. - The preparation of the kerab also begins with opening up the fields. Open furrows are dug specially suited for absorbing the rain. After the rain has come down on the first open ploughing a second is made. Just before sowing durra there is another ploughing and before sowing sesame two. The sowing of summer plants differs from that of winter crops. It is not done like the latter by broadcasting. Durra is sown from a funnel, the upper part of which is joined to the handle of the plough while its point touches the share. The ploughman fills his hand which holds the handle of the plough as full as he can with seeds, and lets them drop one by one into the funnel from which they fall on to the surface of the moist layer in the midst of the open furrow. The dust of the
21
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dry crust then covers over the seeds and the germination is assured. Sesame is sown in two ways. One is like that of sowing durra, only to the side of the ploughshare is attached a board like a wing about twenty centimetres. broad which sweeps aside the loose dry dust and so clears a way for the sesame seeds to fall on to the moist layer which has been opened. The object is twofold. On the one hand the germination is assured, and on the other it becomes easier for the tender seeds to spring up, as they have not to break through the thick crust, a task which is sometimes beyond their strength. Under this method the covering of the seeds is made with . moist loose dust. The second kind of sowing is called: "shegag parhah.", i. e. sowing with two ploughs. One plough opens a furrow with wings on each side. Behind it comes the sower- a young lad -who with his hand throws the grains through the funnel into the furrow which has been opened on moist soil. The second plough then passes after the sower through the open furrow, and takes the moist dust from the side for covering. Thus, while the first plough is returning to open the second furrow for sowing, this one closes the first furrow with the dust of the dry crust. Peas and durra are sown before the later rains, sesame after them. Rain injures the sesame whether it comes down on it before the germination or after. Before germination it closes the dust of mulch and prevents the sprouting of the seeds. After germination it causes a splitting of the ground, because with the closing of the crust there is an increase of evaporation due to capillarity. It is therefore a strict rule that sesame should be sown only after the later rains, when it is quite certain that the dust of the upper crust will be left loose. Care is taken to protect the fields from the inroads of noxious plants, and the "junbut" (Prosopis Stephaniana Willd.) is cut down
22
and the "helfeh" uprooted. The clearing and the weeding are done in the months of Sivan and Tammuz (June and July). The harvest season. - The harvest begins in Iyar (May). All species of leguminous plants are plucked by hand. Cereals are reaped with a scythe when they are tall and plucked by hand when they are low. The sesame is plucked up with the roots, but the durra is doubled over, the stalks being left. The sesame does not ripen all at the same time; the gatherer goes into the field every day and picks out by the colour of the pods those stalks which are ripe for plucking. It is not possible to wait till they all grow ripe,- because the sesame pods, when they ripen, split, and the seeds fall out on the ground. All the members of the family take part in the harvest. Each one on an average reaps an area of about two dunams a day and plucks an area of about one dunam. The reaped cereals and the plucked leguminous plants are made into sheaves in the field, and are then carried away to the place of the threshing. Transport is done by means of camels or asses. Occasionally the women carry away the produce on their shoulders. The reapers are followed by the gleaners, the practice of "leket" being still preserved to the present day. Preparation of the threshing. - Close to every village is to be found a broad open space set aside for threshing. The place selected for this purpose is always one exposed to the wind and with a smooth and hard soil, as a rule on the top of a hill. Each Fellah has a place set aside for his own threshing. With the commencement of the threshing all the inmates of the village, both human and animal, take up their abode at the place of the threshing. The day is spent in work, and during the night each one sleeps by his sheaf to protect it from thieves both from outside and inside. The threshing animals also, the ass, the ox and the camel, stand at their mangers by the side
23
of the heap, and eat during the periods of rest. During the first and last threshing a muzzle is put on their mouths. The precept "thou shalt not muzzle an ox in his threshing" is not observed. In the days of the Turks it was customary to divide the produce into eight heaps in the shape of bricklings, at the threshing place, and occasionally in the field. One of the eight heaps was for the taxgatherer of the Osher Tax. The Government took its portion in kind, and farmed out the Osher by public auction. The taxgatherer used to pitch his tent, which was ornamented with bright-coloured curtains by the side of the threshing floor. The luxury of this tent was in glaring contrast with the poverty of the environment. Its watchers had their eyes on all sides of the threshing-floor to see that the produce was not tampered with. The produce that was threshed in the day was sealed up at night in wooden presses which left their shape on the heaps of grain. Every touch altered the shape and revealed the offence. The present Government had arranged after the occupation to receive the Osher tax in money. It sent assessors to value the crops, and the owner of the produce paid according to the valuation, in instalments. If the village could not come to an- agreement with the assessors, they divided the harvest on some threshing-floors into ten heaps, from which the assessor choosed one. They then threshed this one and used this as a standard for fixing the amount of produce. According to some, the valuation was usually too high in the case of leguminous plants and too low for cereals, sesame and durra. Recently the estimation of the Osher was rectified and it is now based on the average yield of the four preceding years. One tenth of the entire yield is taken and imposed on the village as a whole; in the village a special committee is formed levying 40 to 70 mils per dunam, according to the types of the soil.
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The threshing. - The first operation in connection with the threshing-floor is the scattering and breaking up of the compact usuriboth." This is done as a rule by men working in pairs to the accompaniment of the song "El Allah", and it is over by the beginning of the hot time of the day, the time for threshing. All the draught animals, the ox, the ass and the cow, go up to tread the produce which is heaped up on the threshing-floor. When the produce has been sufficiently trodden the camel is added to the "choir". The threshing-board is a wooden board in which are fixed spikes of stone or iron. To it are yoked pairs of oxen, or mixed spans of an ox, an ass and a camel together. A little boy looks after the threshing-board, and in the heat of the day goes round and round with his animals. The dry.stubble is crushed under the threshing-board and the produce is separated into straw, short crushed stubble and grain. The father Fellah stands by, turning and clearing the threshing-floor until the day cools and the shadows of evening lengthen. Then the animals also are liberated. The child takes them to the well to water them, brings them back to the threshing-floor, and ties them to mangers full of tibn which have been prepared for them. Meanwhile the Fellah makes his preparation for the next day, turning over the threshed produce from top to bottom, and arranging it afresh for threshing. This work goes on for some days until the "ksnria" (first threshing) is finished and there are no stalks left in the threshed produce ("tarcha", in Hebrew "medusha"). The Fellah then lifts up the "tarcha" and arranges it in a close heap facing east and west, and prepares to separate the straw from the wheat. He winnows when there is a wind blowing and commences with the first morning breezes. When he has finished winnowing the heap he scatters it again over the "tarcha", and commences to thresh "tnai." In the "tnai" threshing the Fellah does not use the threshing-board, as it
25
is a maxim with him that for threshing there is nothing better than the iron hoofs of the oxen. He goes threshing in this wayfor a few days. Now and then he examines to see if there are still any grains in the clumps. When no more are found, the"tnai" is finished. He then lifts up the "tarcha" a second time and arranges it in a heap as in the "ksaria". He sweeps the place of the "tarcha" well and goes round the heap. Whatever is gathered up he puts on one side in a corner of the threshing-floor, and arranges it into a special heap which is called, the heap of the "terabiah". He winnows the "tnai" in the morning and evening winds to separate the straw, and in the midday winds to separate the grain from the stubble. When the wind slackens a little between midday and evening, from about five to seven, he passes the grain through a sieve (arbal). The grains fall through the holes of the sieve, and on top are left the bits of stalk that have not been threshed and other leavings.. These remnants are in turn arranged in another heap which is called the heap of the "sabaliah" for a new threshing-floor ("tarcha"), threshes it, lifts it up and winnows it. Finally he winnows the heap of the "tarabiah" from dust, and clods of earth, with grains are left in the heap. The wives of the Fellaheen beat this heap with sticks, break up the clods of earth, and strain the grains. Whatever is left after the beating and thestraining they wash in water, softening the earth and picking out the grains. The threshing is done in the heat of the day when the sun beats down on the head, after the dew which, came down on the produce has evaporated, and the produce has become so dry that it can be easily broken up under thefeet of the animals and the spikes of the threshing-board. This is the threshing system common in Judea. In Galileethe fellah prepares a little heap every day, the threshing of which may be finished during the day. The second day he adds
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a fresh heap and threshes it during the day, and so on. When the first threshing of the whole heap - called the "ksaria" - is finished, the little threshed heaps lie around in a wide circle the centre of which - the place where the heap of produce laybefore - is empty. In the space left in the centre the fellah arranges new threshing heaps (in Galilee called "na'am"), and every evening when its threshing is finished, he adds it to the big heap. Thus, the threshing of the "na'am" is carried on till the whole "ksaria" is finished, and only then does the fellah start winnowing. The threshing of the sesame is done in a special way. The sesame stalks are arranged in a closed circle, from which they are taken out in bundles. These are then beaten with a stick on the ends of the pods. This makes the seeds fall out, and the empty stalks are then put back into the middle of the circle. Thus the sesame threshing-floor is composed of three circles - an outer one containing the stalks brought from the field, an inner one containing the seeds extracted from the shells, and a central one containing stalks which have been emptied. The tibn is stacked in the shape of a cone, and is plastered with a mixture of mud, stubble and dung to a thickness o( few centimetres. This forms the storehouse of tibn. These storehouses are always erected by the side of the threshingfloors. Dung for burning is stuck on the walls of these storehouses to dry. The period of the threshing-floor, with all its various manifestations, goes on from Iyar to Tishri (May to October), during which time it is a scene of varying colours. The heaps of wheat are golden yellow, those of durra are white like milk, while those of sesame shine with a pale gold. The mixed spans of ox, ass, and camel yojced to the threshing-board go round and round, led by a little boy. The men winnow to the wind
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the produce that has been threshed, the corn falling by its. weight in columns while the chaff flies away. The women beat with sticks and small hammers the remnants of the stalks which have escaped the threshing-board and the hoofs of the animals, and shake the sieves. From the time of Ruth up to this day there has scarcely been any change, neither in the methods of operation nor in its notions.
Chapter Three.
CROPPING SYSTEM.
The customary rotation of crops is of two fields. Half the area is set aside for summer plants and half for winter plants. Winter plants grow for the most part during the rainy season, except wheat, which continues to grow for about six weeks after the later rains. Summer plants grow in the sunny period, being nurtured by the deposits of rain which are stored in the ground, and by the dew, and rain itself reaches them either in very small quantities or not at all.
Shelef and Kerab.-Winter plants are divided into cereals, viz. wheat and barley, called "shelef" (stubble); and leguminous plants, viz. beans, lentils, "karsena", "iilbana", "hilba" and lupines. Summer plants are peas, durra and sesame. Leguminous plants and summer plants are called "kerab" (i. e. rotation crops). Cereals are sown after kerab, and they are the real source of income in many cases, and it is only for their sake that all the trouble is taken with the growing oi the kerab.
The kinds of cereals. - The main winter plants in heavy soil are wheat and. barley; the main summer crops are durra and sesame. Barley is the best crop in light soil and wheat in heavy soil, which is the more important in the sphere of cropgrowing. Durra is best in poor soil and sesame in rich soil and in a rainy year. In Galilee chick-peas do well, in Judea and in Samaria not. Karsena, jilbana, and lentils are not of much importance, and are only for domestic use. In the rotation of crops they take the place of durra or sesame on the
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Yiew of the thrcshinqr floor
slopes of the mountains or on the mountains. The rotation of crops usual on light sandy ground is barley and lupines. Lupines are sown in soil that is no good for other field plants. Beans, lentils, onions, "hilba", and barley are sown outside the field on garden land manured with old dung from the village. In the South, in districts where the rainfall is small and droughts are frequent, a rotation of three years is usual: (1) durra, (2) sesame or fallow, (3) wheat. In the same way a rotation of three years is observed on soil the products of which suffer from the ravages of insect pests (Arad, meduad, Syringopais temperatella): two years of kerab and one year of wheat.
Division of the field according to the kinds of crops. - In regard to area the major portion is taken up by wheat and durra. As a rule the Fellah sows half of his fields set aside for winter plants with two thirds wheat and less than one-third barley. The same applies to durra and sesame, durra taking up the greater part of the area. In a rainy year the area devoted to sesame is increased. Hence one may say that the rotation of crops as a rule is: one year wheat and one year durra, or one year wheat and one year sesame.
In the valley of Jezreel and in Galilee leguminous plants are sown more than in Judea and Sharon, the districts where durra and sesame thrive best. The fields from Petah Tikvah to Tulkarem have a particularly good appearance. Handsome fields of durra and sesame are also to be found in the low country of Lydda.
Sometimes beans are sown instead of karsena and lentils. And in the summer crops sometimes the area of peas is diminished and that of durra increased.
The order of sowing is, first beans, then barley, karsena, early lentils, and last of all wheat. Sowing is finished by the middle of Shebat (February). Of summer plants the first to be
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sown is chick peas, then comes durra and last of all after the later rains sesame.
The distribution of plants in the fields of the Emek is in the following proportion: From 8-10 kels*) of wheat 60 dunams 2.5 kels barley 10 dunams 1 - 1.5 kels karsena 5 dunams 0.5 kels lentils 5 dunams V3 kel durra 50 dunams ! / 8 kel sesame 10 dunams 2 kels chickpeas10 dunams 150 dunams = l feddan.
The kerabs according to their importance. - The kerabs are not all of the same value. The most valuable are not the nitrogen-fixers but the cultivated crops. The storing of moisture in (he ground and the destruction of weeds are more important than the storing of nitrogen for increasing the yields. When there is not sufficient moisture in the ground the materials of nutriment found in abundance in the earth are of no avail, since they are not soluble and consequently cannot be absorbed by She plant. It is the weeds that destroy the crops. Not only do they deprive the plant of food and room, but they suck up all the moisture stored in the ground. Cultivated crops destroy the weeds, and the wheat which follows them finds exceptionally favourable conditions for its development, as it does not meet with any competitors which encroach upon its preserves. These plants also destroy the fieldmice, or at any rate make it harder .for them to exist; and the mice are a great plague in the country. Durra which is gluttonous of nitrogen can in many
) Galilean kei: wheat and leguminous crops 72-75 kgs., durra 72 kg, barley 50 kgs, sesame 50 kgs. Every kel contains 12 "meeds".
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cases, if it is.properly prepared, be a better kerab than chickpeas, for instance, which gather nitrogen.
As already stated, wheat and barley are the principal sources of the income of the farm. In the choice of kerabspreference has always to be given to those which create the best conditions for the development of these plants. A distinction must be made between kerabs for summer plants, kerabs for half-summer plants, and kerabs for winter plants.
Summer kerabs. - In the front rank stands sesame, which, practically has no equal. Its time of sowing is late; it should not be sown till the rainy period has entirely passed because; then the soil in which it is sown cannot form a hard crust and. become closed to the air and the dew. The ground is prepared: for it with particular care. It is broken up in such a way as to become loose and open to the air, while being well drenched with rain water in its lower layers. The mulch of the brokea and loosened crust protects the rain water which is stored in the ground from evaporation. The nitrification is powerful and intensive. The roots are strong and .piercing like a spit; they draw their sustenance from the lower layers, they do not exhaust the surface layer, and they prepare a path for the whear; which is to come after them. The constant hoeing required Ut~ sesame loosens the ground still more and preserves its moisture. The constant weeding also destroys the weed which are left after the winter ploughings. The destruction of weeds, as has been mentioned, is an essential condition for the success of the wheat, which comes to grief even in the best soils if the weeding is not done properly. The fertile soil which produce the wheat produces also plants which press it close and try to; squeeze it out, and when these obtain a foothold in the midst of the wheat it is impossible to exterminate them by weeding; alone. Not only is the wheat injured through being trodden
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by the weeders, but their efforts to destroy the weeds are unavailing. War must be joined with the weeds while the fields are under kerabs, and the wheat must find a field properly prepared for it in respect both of tillage and of of weeds.
A. Sesame. - Sesame crops themselves are not as a rule particularly profitable except in fertile soil and in a rainy year, when the crop is likely to be considerable. Very often all the trouble and care bestowed on it are only for the sake of the wheat that is to come after it. Such wheat always yields a larger crop than would be the case if it were sown in a field of any other kerab. The wheat is sown after it without any further preparation of the soil, because after the plucking of the sesame the surface soil is left loose, broken up, leaving excellent mulch and free from all remnants of stalks. The seeds are merely buried by one ploughing over close furrows. The drawback of sesame is that its success depends too much on the rain coming down at the proper time and in the proper quantity, so that its crops are less reliable than those of other plants. Further, the same crop does not all ripen at one time, and this makes the ingathering more difficult.
B. Bamia. - Of equal value with sesame is bamia. This plant is not very common in Palestine. It is sown with a space of 60-80 cms. between the rows, and it is ploughed over all the time that it is growing. The roots are stronger than those of sesame, and draw up their sustenance from below. The plants look like twigs of wood, and form a covering for the ground. The bamia leaves the ground free from weeds; but it leaves behind strong stalks which have to be cleared away from the field.
C. Durra. - Durra is of inferior value, as it exhausts the soil. It has, however, deep roots, and it loosens the ground and
35
throws a shade over all the ground. It is sown in poor soil where sesame would not thrive. Good durra grows as high as a man's head, and in exceptional years as high as a man on horseback. It is not so dependent as sesame on the later rain, but it can be relied upon to do well only in unusually rainy years. The dew has unquestionably a great influence on its growth. As late as ten o'clock in the morning its leaves are still wet with dew. Besides the fact already mentioned, that the durra exhausts the soil, it has a further drawback, because the field sown with it is left covered with large stalks which have to be cleared away (though it must be mentioned that they serve as food for cattle and as fuel, and therefore cannot be reckoned as waste), and the whole ground is broken into crannies.
2. Half-summer kerabs.- Karsena, late lentils and chickpeas. In Galilee peas are important as a kerab, especially in places where sesame does not thrive owing to climatic conditions or to the character oi the soil. The great advantages of these kerabs is that throughout the winter the ground is open to the rain. Also the winter ploughings destroy a great part of the weeds, and leave the ground better prepared for the wheat which is to come afterwards. These species are also nitrogengatherers, and therefore so far from diminishing the store of nitrogen for the use of the wheat which is to come after them, they enrich it, especially if they are not plucked but reaped with a hand-sickle. Remnants of the roots are always left in the ground, even when the plants are plucked up by hand.
3. Winter kerabs. - Beans, lentils, karsena, "hilba", and other kinds of leguminous plants. All of these are practically of the same value, being deep-rooted and gatherers of nitrogen.. The roots of the bean are the strongest and strike deepest. This plant requires a deep soil, and in thin soil it will not
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prosper. These species as a rule do not produce large crops and beans are worth the trouble they require only in first-class soil. When it is grown repeatedly in the same field, its yield falls off. Still, when there is no other kerab it has to be sown for the sake of the wheat which is to follow it. In places where sesame will not grow well on account of climatic conditions, it is practically the only kerab. Beans may also be reaped with a scythe or reaping machine; this saves expense and improves the ground with the remnants of the roots that are left in the soil. It does not, however, free the soil from weeds. Winter weeds drop their seeds while the bean is still growing; after it is reaped the moisture still remains in the ground, and later on it causes to spring up summer weeds which are injurious to the wheat which is sown subsequently. Most of the things which have been said about the bean, both in respect of its advantages and its drawbacks, apply also to the other kinds of leguminous plants. The only difference is that the other kinds do not require deep soil, and do well both on the mountains and on the slopes of the mountains on a thin layer of earth. Their crops are also smaller than those of the bean in good years, but are less liable to variation and are more reliable. Among winter kerabs are to be reckoned also vegetables like onions etc. These plants possess all the advantages enumerated in the sesame, and some of them even surpass it. The special preparation of the ground, the constant hoeing and weeding, and the properties of the plants themselves with their peculiar deep-growing, broad, strong and branching roots - all these things improve the mechanical character of the ground, enrich it with certain materials of nutriment, destroy the weeds, and create favourable conditions for the plants which are to be sown in this field. This kerab is possible, however, only in
37
villages close to a town which provides a market for vegetables, and on limited areas, and* it is not merely a subsidiary product used for the rotation of seeds, but it has substantive value of its own as an important source of income. The same remark applies to the water-melons which are used as a summer kerab for barley in certain districts, especially in the neighbourhood of the sea-ports in Sharon. These plants bring in much more than wheat and barley; they are reckoned the prime source of income in the farm, and they are an end in themselves rather than a mere accessory to wheat and barley. 4. Fallow- - In places where sesame does not thrive, like the Jordan valley, or in districts where the rainfall is small, like the Negeb, and also in the northern districts, the following rotation of crops is practised. Half the field is sown with cereals, while of the second part a portion is devoted to leguminous kerabs and a portion is left fallow,- that is to say, it is ploughed at the end of the winter, and then left fallow for a year. The fellaheen call this tillage "kerab barad" i. e. rainy tillage. In the North it is called "sunny crop-growing" and in the South "sun fallow." This is the method of dry farming, but in an imperfect form, because it lacks the operations performed in the course of the summer with a cultivator and with harrows. In rainy countries this tillage is called "black fallow." This system is practised only in certain cases and under special conditions.
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Chapter Four.
THE HARMONIOUS STRUCTURE.
The whole farm of the Fellah forms an organic unity. Everything is produced in it by his own powers; he is not dependent on any external economic factors and he is not affected by the changes and vicissitudes of the outer world. The simplicity of his implements constitutes his strength in the struggle of existence. His world is not governed by the principle of "time is money", but by the principle of "preservation of matter." He allows nothing to go to waste. Everything which appears to be lost returns to him after various transformations. Leavings and remnants which in other places are not thought good enough for the rubbish heap are used by him for building material, for fuel and for feeding stuff for his cattle. All work in his house is done by his family and not by hired labourers from without, so that he is always taking in and never paying out. And the slightest profit he makes from his labour is of value to him.
In the usual two fields rotation of crops there is thorough regularity. The winter cereals alternate either with cultivated crops or with nitrogen-gatherers. But the only product which yields a good income without involving much expenditure is wheat. It is a higher yielder in itself than other crops, and the reaping and ingathering do not cost much. The other species require plucking, some of them weeding and tending, operations which require many hands. These manual operations however do not affect the profit of the Fellah. His work has no money
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value for him. It is no commodity in the market and there is no price for it. In a country where industry is not yet even in its cradle and where agriculture is primitive to the last degree, labour has no money value. Every little therefore counts. In a place where labour commands no price there is no need to be particular about time and to despise slow work. There is no harm in putting on a spurt one day and sitting idle the next. What is the use of time-saving implements and quick-working cattle if the work can be done also with light implements which he acquires for a few pounds and which last him all his life, sometimes being left over for his son?
External appearance and structure. - The whole village both in its external appearance and in its structure seems to have risen out of the soil on which it stands. It is indeed formed from that soil-dust of its dust and stone of its stones. The Arab village is a creature which takes its colour from its environment. In the plain it is built of mud, all home manufacture not costing a penny. The materials are composed of the dust of the earth, of the straw which it produces and of the dung of the animals which it feeds. These prime materials are worked up by the hands of women who gather stubble, make straw, mix earth and water to make mud, harden the mud with cow dung which has been dried in sun and breaks in their hands, and bake bricks. On the slopes of the mountains the houses are built of stones from the mountains. The members of the Fellah's family collect the stones with their own hands and raise the walls, and the village builder only completes the structure. The Fellah buys from outside nothing except the corner stones and wood for the roof and the door. The stalks of tall grass covered with dust are used to cover the roofs. This dust produces grass and herbs. Only in villages near to town which have been "spoilt by civilisation" have they begun lately to cover the roof with imported tiles.
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Buildings. - In the Shefelah the whole village is surrounded with a mud wall. According to present ideas this wall affords no protection and it is no wonder that the walls of Jericho fell at the blast of the trumpet. They are, however, sufficient for the needs of the Fellah. House adjoins house and every court is surrounded with a high fence made of mud. This is in the Shefelah. In the South it is built of medium-sized stones. Inside each court there is one building. The poor man has one room which serves at once as a dwelling for men, a resting place for beasts and a storehouse for produce, i The house of the wellto-do Fellah has a number of rooms: one large room for the use of men and beasts, one for receiving visitors, and one for storing. Besides the main house in the court there is also a small building "tabbun" (the oven). Sometimes two families live in one court. The low conical straw-stacks plastered with stubble twigs and mud are scattered outside the court, by. the side of the threshing floors, where they stand like sentries on guard.
The cost of building the house are for an ordinary Fellah as follows: In the mountain districts, stones £ 3-4; wood for roof and door £ 2; builder's wages from £ 5-6 ; total 10-12. In the Shefelah, stubble (Kash) £ 1 - 1.5; wood £ £ 2; total £ 3-3.5.
Working Animals.- The Fellah's implements are also home made; they are not brought from a distance or from abroad. The whole of his land, covering from 120 to^ 150 dunams, heworks with three oxen, or with a horse or a camel - "seeka" in his own language. He gives the preference to oxen for the following reasons: (1) they are cheaper to maintain than any other draught animal; (2) the working day is longer with them, as the oxen do not require to rest at midday. It is usual to go out to the field with, three oxen and to work with two, change
43
ing one ox every two hours, and so they work from dawn to dusk without cessation; (3) many operations. are performed better with oxen e. g. ploughing and threshing; (4) in case of accident or old age the Fellah does not loose much as the ! price of the flesh for slaughter is almost equal to the value of the draught animal. Feeding costs nothing. For the greater part of the year the oxen graze in the fields. Many wild plants have a value for the farm whether they are left in the field or cut down as weeds. In winter during the period of rainfall they feed on the tender grasses and in summer on the remnants of the stalks of the cereals. When the field is too crowded at the beginning of the sprouting of the cultivated plants, the Fellah sends his beasts to tick them, and this is good both for the beasts and for the field. The plants that are weeded out in the winter serve as food for the cattle, and so two birds are killed with one stone : the field is cleared and the animals are fed. For about eight mouths the oxen feed on pasture, and for about two months the Fellah adds to the pasture a little hay. Only for two months does he feed them on full diet in the farm yard, made up as follows: a manger full of hay with a handful of "aiif" (concentrated food) three times a day, and two rottles of sesame cake or of beans in the course of the day. According to the Fellaheen about two kantars of sesame cake or of beans and karsena are required for one "seeka" per year. Apart from the sesame cake, therefore, all the food is home produce. The Fellah keeps a camel for the following reasons: (1) his crops do not suffice to support him, and the camel brings him in money by being used in outside work for transport. (2) Transport can be done by the camel itself, but by oxen only ; with a waggon. It does not cost more to keep a camel than to , keep oxen. The camel also obtains most -of its food in the
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open field; coarse grasses which any other animal would disdain are delightful to the palate of the camel. The "sabar" (cactus) which grows round the villages serves a double purpose : it is a "live fence" for the village and provides food for men and camels - the fruit for the former and the leaves with their prickly points for the latter. To this food which the camel obtains free his master adds beans, straw, and a small quantity of karsena or jilbana.
Productive animals. - Not every Fellah has a special milch cow. But when he has one, it also hardly costs him anything, it also is a product of the home, and lives on the leavings and extras of the house, also on grass sprouting from a rock and on thorns that a man cannot get at with a sickle, though the mouth of the animal can. So too the fowls. No special food is provided for them. They rummage in the dung heaps and live on the refuse and the insects creeping about there. Nevertheless they are good layers ; in some cases they are equal in this respect to birds of good stock and they have the advantage over them of being immune against several diseases.
Implements. - The Fellah's implements are few in number and light in weight. He carries his plough on his shoulders when he returns from work, and a young boy looks after the threshing board and the mule attached to it. All his implements are home-made, formed out of wood obtained on the spot (mostly from Zizyphus Spina Christi), only the coulter being made of iron. The plough cannot be beaten for simplicity, lightness and suitability to the climate, to the condition of work and to the object in view. It performs at one stroke and without calling for any undue strain or effort the function of a plough, a roller and a harrow. It does not bring up clods, it makes the earth loose, it does not overturn it, it does not cause any of the moisture to evaporate, it does not bury any weeds
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in his passage, and, of course, it does not make them grow or increase their number. When rain comes down for a long time continuously or with brief intervals, the Arab plough is the only one with which work can be done. In such conditions the European plough does not cut the ground, but packs the dust together, makes bricks, rolls the earth into ciods, and damages the ground for years. Hence in rainy years the Arab plough prolongs the working season.
Investment capital. - The whole "capital" required for the equipment of the Fellah's farm is made up pretty much as follows:
5 oxen or a camel (or a horse or mare 10-12) £ 15 -20
15 or 20 sheep 20
An ass 3 - 4
A plough 0.40
A threshing-board 0.60
Two wooden picks 0.15
One iron pick 0.20
7 sacks for straw 0.60
One scythe 0.10
One yoke or pole 0.60
Ropes for binding 0.30
2 sieves 0.25
Total
Adding a cow £ 6-10, a goat £ 0.80-1, and 30 fowls £ : 3-4 41.20 - 47.20 14 - 14
the total for all implements and sources of food supply is £55.20-61.20
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Yearly Expenditure of a Wealthy Fellah working Three Feddans. (number of souls in the family-15).
Wheat Burgul (cooked wheat grains)
Lentils
Chick peas
Beans
Olive oil
Milk
Leben
Semneh (cooked butter)
Soap
Salt
Onions
Meat
Rice Eggs
Coffee
The following live stock is held for the use of the household:
8 milch cows the lactation period of which extends over six months; 40-50 goats; 30 fowls.
The cows and goats yield 10-12 roti of milk daily. A number of eggs is sold, the income therefrom belonging to the housewife. The fellah in question has also a "madafeh" (reception room) and a separate women's house.
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Chapter Five.
THE WAY OF LIFE OF THE FELLAH.
1. The Fellah's Working Day. Not every Fellah performs hard labour. The heads of family groups endeavour by every means to free themselves, as far as possible, from the obligations of work. The well-to-do arrange their farming in such a way as to let the work be done by a "harat" (hired workman). This does not apply to the women, who work most laboriously all the days of the year, the wives of the Sheiks forming no exception.
The good housewife. - The woman knows no Sabbath. The sphere of her work is very extensive. It includes the household work, looking after the children, cleaning the yard, bringing in straw from the stack which as a rule is outside of the yard, gathering herbs in the field for cooking, plucking herbs for feeding the cattle, bringing supplies from the town, carrying the produce of the house to the market of the neighbouring town, gleaning and harvesting, and so forth. In many respects the woman performs the functions of a working animal whether when she goes as upright as a palm with a pitcher of water or a basket of home produce on her head, or when she goes crouching under the load of bundles of herbs and gleanings from the field on her shoulder.
Her working day begins with midnight. The first crow of the cock wakes her from her sleep, the second finds her watching on her pallet, the third rouses her to work, the watches
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of the night being as of yore. And the same summoner, whose intelligence, the gift of his maker, is blessed by all Jews in matins, goes on fulfilling his task. Both the sacred and the i profane are under his way, from the worship of God in his i tempie to the farmer in the field. Day by day they once brought j sacrifices to the altar at cock crow. Nor have there been any i changes, even in the meanings of the summons. It is the third ; crow of the cock that portends good fortune. Whoever takes the road before cock crow does so at his own risk and peril, the Talmud says. Do not fare forth till the rooster lias crowed, two times, some say till he has crowed three times. And if one asks of what rooster, be it said of the ordinary rooster. It is this triple cock crow which is called awal sia/ia, tani sia/ia and talit siaha by the Fellah to this very day. With the third crow the sound of milling resounds from every hut throughout the village. It is this voice which acclaims life and daily bread. All the prophets of misfortune from Jeremiah to the heralds of vision saw the wrath of God in the silencing of the voice of the bridegroom and the bride, in the loss of the murmur of the mill and the light of the candle. The day is short and the task is long. With the dawn she must light the stove, knead dough of the flour ground before daybreak by candle light and bake her flat * cakes. Perhaps the milling is less toilsome in the cool of the night.
Weeding and hoeing, harvesting and gleaning, all these are part of the woman's daily round, apart from her watchful care for the home. The infant that is bound to her gives her no respite. Suckings and infants yet in the cradle are borne out to the fields on their mother's heads and shoulders. In the heat of the day they stay outdoors in their cradles, right among the toilers.
Hours of work.-The Fellah who is poor begins his work in the field in the sowing season at dawn and finishes it at
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dark. The whole day is given up to work without any rest period. He eats his frugal "pittah" while he is ploughing. He returns home about an hour after sunset, when he feeds his animal and eats his own evening meal. After a few hours sleep he gets up and goes to feed his oxen till daylight. Then he goes through another day in the same way. In harvest time the Fellah begins to reap at daybreak and goes on without cessation till two hours after midday. He then returns home and gets something to eat, rests about two hours, and then brings his draught animal - his ass or camel -, loads it with the produce which has been reaped and takes it to the threshing-floor. During threshing time work begins with sunrise. Till seven he is occupied in turning over the heap or winnowing. After that begins the threshing, which goes on till after midday. From four o'clock he turns over the threshed produce (tarh'a) or makes it into a heap again.
The seasons of work. - The farm of the Fellah does not demand the undivided attention of its owner in this way during the whole of the year, it occupies him only for four or five months: three or four weeks in sowing the winter crops, three or four weeks in sowing the sommer crops, and over three months in threshing work, while two months he is idle on account of the rain. In this way he has about five months free for outside work (see table 4, p. 20). The Fellah's farm in the plain is usually monocultural, being devoted wholly to crops. Occasionally the Fellah has also a few score of olive frees and a handful of fig trees. In many villages there is not a sign of vegetables, and in most of them only a few vegetables are grown. In the Shefelah and in the South nearly every Fellah has a cow. Only a few have sheep. As has been mentioned, agriculture does not occupy the Fellah the whole of the year. He is free for other work for
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about five months. During this period he tries to gain a living by outside work. Every village provides some additional occupation itself. Those, however, who live on the mountain ^ slopes and in the neighbourhood of towns find additional occupation in the stone quarries, either actually working in the quarries or acting as eamel-drivers to transport the stones to the towns. Those who live on the mountains work at the furnaces and at making charcoal. For burning lime they use "natch" (Poterium spinosum), a brushwood that grows on the mountains. Wages are from 8-10 Piastres a day.
2. Size of Farms
The normal unit. - An ordinary Fellah has a portion in the village land of from 70-100 dunams. He works the whole of this area without outside assistance. One who has more land engages a "harat." The wages of the "harat" are paid as a rule in kind: 5 kantars of wheat and 5 kantars of barley, or food and clothing and one pound per month.
Among the villagers are some who own larger properties extending to 400-500 Dunams, and who work all their land by means of "harats."
Tenant-Farming. - The Effendi who lives away from the village lets his land to a tenant. The large landowners in Galilee had stone dwellings everywhere for the residence of these tenants. The terms of tenancy are very simple. The Effendi gives the use of his land to the Fellah and in return he receives the fifth part of the product. A tenant who hires more than a feddan (150 Dunams in Valley of Esdraelon, in certain places 120 Dunams) engages a "harat" and pays him a quarter of the total produce, and the "harat" on his side pays his proportion of the fifth due to the owner and of the Osher of the Government. In addition the Fellah has to pay for the plucking of the durra and of the peas which costs about 3 pounds.
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A. Income and Expenditure of a 12 Feddan Farm in Galilee, (worked according to Arab system of farming). I n c o m e L. E. Expenditure L. E.
Wheat Barley Lentils Karsena Chickpeas Faeuum Graee. Horsebeans Durra Total
At harvest time lie hires day labourers, giving them food and tobacco all the time they work and 120-150 P.T. in cash per feddan.
For weeding 3-4 pounds are spent in the course of the year. This work is done by women for five to six Piastres a day.
Finally he has an additional expenditure of 4-5 kels of wheat for bringing the produce from the field, for ingathering and for threshing.
All expenses are borne by the tenant, except that for watching, in which the owner also shares. In lieu of this outlay the Effendi takes a meed (a twelfth part of a kel) for every feddan watched. For the food of the cattle at threshing time also the tenant has to pay a meed for every head.
A 3. The Household of the Fellah.
The diet of the Fellah is poor and monotonous. His staple food is the "pittah" which he bakes every day. A few "pittahs" with onions or radishes form his morning and midday meals. A cooked meal - called by him "tabiekh" - is only prepared for him in the evening. It consists of the herb "khubbeza" flavoured with onions and pepper. When tomatoes are in season he eats tomato salad flavoured with pepper. Pepper and oil are his two condiments. Most of his requirements are provided by his own fields, and he buys but little outside.
Bread. - In the diet of the Fellah the most important article is bread. An average family of 7 souls uses 7 - 8 kantars of grain (two-thirds wheat, one third durra). This quantity is made up from the produce of an average farm. The poorer Fellahs do not obtain from their fields enough for their food and they make up the deficiency partly by gleaning, partly by purchase rom outside.
Milk. - In many villages milk is obtained from sheep by those who have their own shepherds. The average number of
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heads is 15-20. The sheep pasture on the mountains, in the cereal fields, and in the durra fields. The flocks are more numerous in marshy places, which supply fresh herbage ail the year round. Milk is most plentiful as a rule at the season of the rainfall, for three or four months a year, when the herbageis plentiful. All the year round the sheep live on dry food. The Arab cow yields about six hundred litres of milk a year, triewhole of it in the course of a few months. The ewe yields 50-60 litres of milk. Most of the milk is used for making curds and cheese for household consumption. Occasionally the mistress of the house sells a little cheese in the neighbouring market or to a trader visiting the village, from whom she obtains a fewarticles in exchange.
Eggs. - Most of the Fellaheen have 30-40 fowls. Not one of them knows how many eggs he collects nor do they pay any attention to this branch. In the home they use this article of food chiefly to entertain visitors. As a rule the woman sells the eggs and gets in exchange feminine articles like needles, thread, cheap ornaments and so forth.
Meat - The Fellah uses very little meat. For entertaining, visitors he will kill a sick sheep or some sick fowls. They also have meat when an ox or a camel falls ill beyond recovery. They then kill the animal and treat the members of the village with a portion of the flesh. Sometimes with the money which the woman obtains in the market from the sale of fowls, cheeseand eggs, she purchases a pair of trotters, a head or so forth,, with which she prepares a special treat on returning home.
Oil. - The Fellah uses a great deal of oil. A favourite dish of his is "pittah" dipped in oil. He consumes a jar of oil per person per year. In some villages the Fellah has his own olive trees. He presses the olives in the neighbouring oil-press, leaving the refuse in payment, while he takes away the oil. In villages.
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where there are no olive trees they use sesame oil which they prepare themselves.
Vegetables. - The Fellah does not grow enough vegetables for his requirements. In many villages they are not grown at all. In most villages there are only a few winter vegetables. Those who want vegetables buy them in the neighbouring town. The Fellah's favourie dish is the "tabiekh" made of "khubbeza." The woman gathers this herb in the winter months, dries it, and uses it for cooking most of the year.
Clothing. - Expenditure on clothing falls under two heads: (1) Clothing bought once a year; (2) Clothing bought every four or five years. Every year the Fellah buys a "tob." If a Fellah is asked how old he is he will answer: "1 have bought so and so many pairs of shoes and tobs." In times of scarcity he buys a tob every two years. An "abaiah" is bought every four or five years, and a "tarboush" every five or six years. Expenditure on clothing is made up as follows: "tobs" for a family £ 2.5; shoes £ 1; proportion of the cost of the tarboush and abaiah £ 0.50; total £ 4.-
Soap. - The Fellah uses soap only for washing clothes. For washing the body and the hands he is satisfied with plain water. For washing clothes also they use for the most part ash of the stalks of sesame a supply of which is prepared for the whole year. Of clothes washing altogether there is very little. A.s a rule the tob is washed once a month or once in two months. Most families use two to for bars of soap a year, i. e. 2-4 okias, costing 6 PT. a year.
4. The Communal Organisation.
Communal Bodies. - The ruling powers of the village are: (1) the Sheiks, (2) the Mukhtars, (3) the Elders (Ichtiaria). The Sheiks are the heads of the family groups (the Hamuleh), and
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their function is to settle disputes which arise between the members of the Hamuleh, and in conjunction with the Ichtiaria to arrange those matters which concern all the members of the village. The Mukhtars are elected by special law and approved by the Government. They are the representatives of the village with the Government.
Ownership. - All the arable land in the village is "musha," and belongs to the community. Once every two years it is divided up among the inhabitants of the village. The land itself is divided into three or four main sections according to the number of Hamulehs in the village.
Every Fellah has the right of use of a certain share of the land of the village. This share is expressed in terms of various measure; sometimes by Feddan (pair of cattle), sometimes by Seeka (plough), similar to the Feddan of the Mishna, sometimes by Kerat (every Kerat is V24) anc^ sometimes by Sehem, a certain fraction, the denominator of which is fixed by the nominator.
The Musha (undivided) land itself, is marked out in a fixed number of blocks. This number varies .according to the kind of land and its situation. For example,,the land of a village whose area is 15,000 dunams may be divided into 30 blocks. Each block (Muka) has a different name which is derived from some incident that occurred in the village or from the person to whom the land belongs.
For instance :
Jazirat el Takhuna = Station on island,
Bez Iyoun el Assavur = Swamp "Ain el Assavour"
Kalat el Beader = Platform of Threshing Fioor
El Belita = Oak
Maiab el Jazlan = Place of Gazelles
El Majir = Caves
Kur Amar = Valley of Amar.
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The right of use of every Fellah to the share marked on the Musha land is not concentrated in one block, but scattered among the various blocks of the land of which the village is composed, or in a number of single blocks, according to an agreement with the villagers. The Fellah's share is therefore divided into plots. It may be that his plot or parcel in one block is consolidated there, or it may be divided into separate strips in the one block. The strip is termed Maris.
The number of individual strips varies according to the kind of land. It is possible for a Seeka to be scattered among 20-30 places,l even though the number of blocks be less; for sometimes the block cannot be definitely divided according to the kind of land, the good and the bad being mixed up and confused. The width of a strip is sometimes 4-5 metres and the length some hundreds, and there are instances when the width is 2 metres and the length 1,000. In one village for example, such a field is called "Tual", after the length of the strips; in another it is called "Danab Hawasheh," i. e. the end of the tail, as this field is considered so good, that every villager wishes to have at leest a crumb. Each strip may contain even only one dunam, and sometimes there are two partners sharing this dunam.
Sometimes the land is indicated as Musha theoretically, whereas it is actually, by agreement among the villagers, subdivided land. Jewish colonies have done much to influence the neighbouring villages to become "Mafruz" land, i.e. each individual has his own separate land, but it is scattered in a number of places.
The usual share of a fellah in the land amounts to from 1/2-1 feddan. Between Gaza and Jaffa Egyptian fellaheen have settled on small holdings of 30-40 dunams. Sometimes one of the Sheiks or Effendis owns a half or a third of the whole village. In some villages it is only the Hamulehs which differ in
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the number of sehems they own, some having a larger portion, some a smailer, while within the Hamulah the land is divided according to the number of individuals and their share-rights.
The actual ownership of the land of various villages usually does not go back, according to the report of old Sheiks, even two generations. A hundred or hundred and fifty years ago many lands were empty of inhabitants. Their workers lived in neighbouring towns or in large villages. In the same way the southern Fellah at the present day lives in Hebron, in Gaza, or in BethGubrin, and his land is a day or two days journey away. Even the capital cities of to-day, like Jaffa and Jerusalem, were inhabited more by countrymen than by traders, just as Lydda, Ramleh and Nabius are at the present day.
In those good old days the land was not assigned to its tiller by the ox-goad measure (masafim), but each one took as much as his heart desired and his hands could work. But as time went on, the "land of God" became less and less, and men of might seized it and would not give it to others. Space was limited and quarrels were frequent. The weak banded together into families, and took up their fixed abode on the land which they tilled. In some cases the workers could not live in the village owing to the shortage of water. They managed, however, to find some old stopped-up wells, by opening which they obtained water; and so the last obstacles were removed.
Ploughing plots. -After the first rains the Sheiks and the Mukhtars go out to measure the fields and to assign each to his part. Measurement is made with an ox-goad about two and a half meters long, and with this the plots are marked out. The plot extends the whole length of the block with a width of from one ox-goad to six ox-goads. The length is known from long prescription, and there is no need to delimit the fields assigned to each "hamuleh" every year, as their boundaries are
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fixed by tradition and are well known. They are also recognised by ancient landmarks, which are often "living landmarks," wild plants of great age like Hazab (Uriginea Maritima). After they have marked out the main blocks, they cast lots between the hamulehs, and then between the individual members of the hamulehs. The casting of lots is done with the "lepeh" under the tarboush with rags of different colours, each colour representing a plot.
Parcellation. - Since 1928, the Survey Department of the Government carry out the parcellation in accordance with a list of shares in each of the cultivation blocks, which is supplied to them by the Land Settlement Department, after consultation with the village authorities.
The communal affairs. - The communal affairs of the village are few. As a rule they are confined to the watching of the fields and the government taxes, and in a few villages they include the water supply. There is a special charge for water only in villages where the water is deep down and has to be drawn up with a long rope with the help of a pair of oxen or a camel. In such villages it is usual for one man to undertake a contract for the drawing of the water, especially in the period when the draught animals are occupied in the field, that is, for six months in the year. The daughters of the village carry the water on their heads in pitchers, exactly as in the days of Rebecca. They may be seen morning and evening by the side of the well, each one waiting for her turn to receive her share of water.
The whole communal expenditure comes practically under the heads of drawing water and watching the fields. The expense of watching is distributed according to area, each sehem contributing one mesha (5 rottles of wheat). The charge for water is made according to the number of heads and pitchers, as a rule five Piastres per month, and one Piastre for 4 pitchers of water.
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Thus the communal charges on each individual are made up as follows:
for watching 2 meslias of wheat 40 piastres
for water 120
For defraying the expenses of the Mukhtaria, of journeys and of entertaining soldiers the Government returns 2-2 l/2 2/3 of the taxes to the Mukhtar.
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Chapter Six.
THE FELLAH'S FARM UNDER EXPERIMENT.
An area of 250 dunams is divided into seven different types of farm units at the branch station at Gevath (Valley of Esdraelon). The purpose of the investigation is to compare the typical farms established in Palestine from the point of view of the cost of crop-production and returns; and likewise to ascertain the possibility of developing holdings on modern lines.
The plan of experiments was laid out by the Divisions of Rural Economics and of Agronomy. The work is carried out by the Division of Agronomy.
The area set aside for the primitive type of farm is cultivated strictly in accordance with the prevailing system. To ensure greater certainty, this portion has been handed over to an Arab fellah, who cultivates it at his own expense, according to his own methods without any influence on our part, the Division simply taking exact notes on his methods of cultivation, hours of work, the cost of maintaining his working teams and of providing his essential food requirements.
This arrangement will provide a clear picture from an economic point of view ofithe advantages and disadvantages of each type of farm under consideration over a long experimental period.
The Aim of the Experiments.
In general the plan follows two main lines: that adopted in existing farms in accordance with their essential characters, and the new line marked out by the Division of Agronomy and the
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Division of Plant-Breeding. In regard to the first, the system of farming is carried out on set lines without any alteration; while in the second, the farm is worked according to those positive results which have been obtained by the various Divisions of the Experimental Station, which show any relevance to the subject under review. The best methods of cultivation, combination of manures, quantities of seeds and sowing dates are adopted. The best selected seeds from the Division of Plant-Breeding are used. Control of diseases and insect pests is practised according to the instructions of the Divisions of Plant Pathology and Entomology.
The aim of the experiments is also to verify and to compare the results of those methods which in the experimental plots have proved to be the best, for the following reasons :
Absolute yield. - Experiment plots are small. The largest are 5 ares. While this size is quite sufficient to furnish comparative data of a relative value between the various methods tried, it is too small to give their absolute yields, the managing of small experimental plots being of a special character.
Combination of many factors. - In experimental plots we generally deal with a single factor. Thus, for instance, in green manuring experiments the investigation is limited to green manuring versus non-manuring. Other treatments, like tillage etc., are done in the customary manner of the country. In the economic fields all the treatments will be carried out according to the results obtained in the corresponding experimental fields.
Technical possibilities. - Certain methods are to be tested as to whether they are realisable under field conditions on account of technical difficulties involved, for example, the method of sowing in strips and cultivating during the growing season between the rows.
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Economy. - The economic value of some methods, cost of production, etc., can hardly be established in experimental plots, and larger fields approaching to the size of farms are required for this purpose.
Types of Farms Existing in the Grain Region.
The following are the three principal types of existing farms in the grain region: -(1) The fellah's primitive farm; (2) The consolidated mixed farm; (3) The mono-culture European farm. At opposite poles are the entirely primitive farm of the fellah and the consolidated mixed farm, while between them, the remaining types constitute gradual steps in development These include transition farms which gradually approach the mixed farm according to a definite plan in advance, and farms in which the main revenue comes from grain while the other branches are subsidiary.
1. The fellah's farm. - This farm is minutely described in previous chapters. Its characteristics are: - bi-annual rotation; mono-culture; dependence upon grain; the rotation crops are the only means of maintaining fertility; manure is not an item to be calculated; the standard of life is low, in many cases below poverty level.
2. The consolidated mixed farm. - This farm is described in a separate essay. Its characteristics are: - the chief item is fodder crops rotation; increase and maintenance of fertility is secured by manures and fertilisers regulated in alternation for each field; the system of cultivation and form of organisation are modern; the standard of life is comparable to that prevailing in all civilised countries.
3. The mono-culture European farm. - In its crop rotation this farm resembles that of the fellah except that instead of primitive implements, modern ones are wholly or partly employed.
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The mixed farm is the only one which can serve as an example in respect of the standard of life which it assures its owner, and it is this which is the chief point of departure for all the reforms which it is proposed to introduce in the other types of farms.
Living Area.- As the constant factor we take a given standard of life in a certain period of years. The factors securing it are subject to variation. We express the former in money when we assume that provision of the essential needs of a working family in farm produce and cash requires a sum of £160 per annum net. The factors securing tltfs amount vary as to size of area, form of organising the farm, extent of intensification, etc.
Size of unit in the intensive farm. - The unit established for an intensive farm is, for non-irrigated land 100-130 dunams; for heavy irrigated soil, 30 dunams; for plantation soil according to the quality 10-15 dunams. All these units are intentionally adjusted to the form of farm based upon the family's own labour without requiring hired labour at all or only in exceptional cases in seasons of stress.
The extensive farm. - The size of this farm will require an area three or more times greater than that in the above examples in order to secure the given standard of life, because in a farm of this type the revenue is composed of the surplus income derived from the difference between the standards of life of the owner and the workman, in contrast to the intensive farm which really depends upon family labour only. In the grain region it can be maintained only on the cultivated fallow system, that is, half of the area remains idle. The various customary rotation-crops in the prevailing cropping system require excessive manual labour and these crops cannot, in virtue of their yields, produce a surplus for the owner above the cost of labour. A farm of this type is
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satisfactory as a transition in colonisation but not as a permanent condition. Its system enables the preparation of large areas with few labour forces and also the increase of fertility of the soil. The machine is, in such transition farm, imperatively necessary; primitive tools cannot in this case take its place.
The size of the fellah's farm. -The improvement of the fellah's farm is possible only in such units as are established for types of intensive farms dependent on the family's labour, for the following reasons: -(1) the extensive transition farm can be considered only for unsettled areas of land and not for land distributed between close settlers; and (2) this farm requires a very heavy equipment costing large sums, requires qualified labour, and supports a thin population. On the other hand it is possible to raise a smallholding to the degree of the described mixed farm over a long transition period, even with the fellah's tools, without any appreciable change.
Sources of revenue in the mixed farm. - The dairy is the chief source of revenue in the mixed farm. Its structure and form of organisation are entirely adapted for growing fodder and maintaining cows. The first dairy farms were founded on non-irrigable land or with slight auxiliary irrigation. This is the position also to-day. The path to growing of fodder and improvement of cattle is for the most part beaten out. Not so the path to the market which has not yet even been found. For by market we must mean foreign markets, seeing that in Palestine the urban population is small and their purchasing power low.
In other countries intensification in agriculture proceeded by way of conversion of grain to meat and milk. It is possible that in Palestine redemption will come to heavy agriculture by "the milky way." Milk products will stand competition in eastern markets. All the factors of production available
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in the country are absolutely favourable, as the writer has shown in special studies. But a national economy cannot be dependent on solitary branches even when they exist and certainly when they are only a matter of speculation. Possibly the dairy farm will produce competitive products from heavy irrigated soil alone. It is, therefore, necessary, for greater protection, to seek also systems of intensification which are not dependent upon cattle breeding.
Plan of Experiments.
Area. - The area of 250 dunams was divided into 25 fields of one hectare each. This size may be considered as sufficient for the purpose pursued, as it represents the average size of field in a small holding.
Soil. - The soil of this block is similar to the rest of the experimental fields of the Station, analyses of which are given elsewhere.
The fields lay bare for many years covered with weeds, especially the wild carot and the wild Canary grass. To get rid of the latter especially, the field was ploughed 25 cms. deep in the summer of 1926, except, of course, the field devoted to Arab farming, where no other implement but the Arab plough was ever used.
The eradication of weeds in the Arab farming fields was done by hand little by little, in the course of successive years of cultivation. The soil was in a very exhausted state, and crops grown in the first year were low in yield. Owing to the relatively large size of field, only a single component of the rotation occupies the field at a time, and, consequently, results will only be obtained at the end of the various periods. In this respect the farm differs from the experimental fields, where all the components are simultaneously grown, and results are continuously
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in evidence. In the Arab farming, however, all the components occupy the soil simultaneously. The rotation of Arab farming should consist of the main rotations of the country, namely: wheat-sesame, wheat-durra, wheat-chick peas. However, as the summer crops depend upon yearly rainfall, it is left to the farmer to withdraw a given crop if conditions of the year are unfavourable.
The Cultivator. - The fellah and his family have their residence not in the Experimental Station but in a village in the vicinity where he is working other land in tenancy. He comes to work the 60 dunams at the Station at the proper time of operation. His family consists of six persons: the fellah and his wife, two sons, 3 and 17 years old, and 2 daughters, 6 months and 15 years old.
In addition to the fields of the Station the fellah works about 200 dunams. The working animals which he uses for the
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whole area, the fields of the Station included, are 4 oxen and 2 asses. Half of his own area is sown with winter crops, viz. wheat, barley and beans, the other half being sown with summer crops, viz. durra and sesame. Additionally every year one dunam of lentils is sown. In the following table the field returns which the fellah in question receives from his 200 dunams and the use he makes of them, is given: