"تقارير إدارة أقسام ومناطق الأراضي المحتلة في بلاد الرافدين لسنة ١٩١٨. المجلد I" [و‎‎٩‎٥] (٤٧٠/١٩٤)

and crops of valuable and cheap varieties. But there is a further defect which ought to be susceptible
of correction, viz., that there is a vast difference in value between, say, a jowah of melons and a jowah
of bamiyah. The tax m my district was admittedly an experiment, and I am not at all sure that it
was a success, first, 1 have not yet made my demands, as I have waited till all vegetables were finished
and we could see what failures there have been; second, I am not sure that some cultivators will not be
hard hit, owing to the failure of their expensive varieties. But in any case the whole scheme is a
temporary expedient, and in any intelligent system of taxation vegetable tax would be included in
ordinary land revenue.
2. The problem of collection and assessment should not be difficult, but I found this year that my
revenue staff were strongly opposed to my scheme, as they, presumably, in old days, looted a very fine
revenue from the vegetable tax. Consequently they set out to make as many difficulties as possible.
The scheme was that the qolchi of any given area was responsible for counting the jowahs of each
sarkal in his area; his work was to be inspected by the mamur, who would propose remissions for failures
where they occurred. Further inspections and checks were to be carried out by the mudir mal and
myself. These last were necessarily of a cursory nature. In point of fact the mamur did most of the
original count himself and left it to the qolchi to keep the register up to date. The qolchis’ subsequent
reports have given most of the trouble we have had; they will need more careful instructions another
year, as the qolchi is singularly unintelligent and was even indiscreet enough to report as failed jowahs
which had never been reported as sown.
The time when vegetables are first sown is the important one, as, if the original list is fairly correct,
it should not be difficult for the mamur to keep himself fairly well informed as to how things are going,
and the sarkal himself can be made responsible for informing the authorities when he puts down a new
lot of jowahs.
Many sarkals prolonged their jowahs considerably and so got more for their money; this of course
was inevitable, but I do not imagine that we lost much by it.
(Signed) J. S. Thomson, Captain,
A.P.O., Musaiyib.