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'A handbook of Syria (including Palestine). London: Naval Staff Intelligence Department, June 1919' [130v] (265/738)
The record is made up of 1 volume (365 folios). It was created in 1919. It was written in English. The original is part of the British Library: India Office The department of the British Government to which the Government of India reported between 1858 and 1947. The successor to the Court of Directors. Records and Private Papers Documents collected in a private capacity. .
Transcription
This transcription is created automatically. It may contain errors.
254
AGRICULTURE
The ancient wooden plough, drawn by oxen, and the
reaping hook and the threshing sledge are still in general use
in Syria. The peasants, who cultivate most of the land,
cannot afford to purchase and maintain modern European
implements. Besides, deep furrow ploughs are not suited
to the requirements of the summer crops. Iron ploughs,
reaping machines, harrows, and similar implements are being
introduced where the ground permits and where capital is
available (e. g. in the Jewish and German colonies). They
involve necessarily certain changes in agricultural methods
(e. g. more thorough clearing of the land from stones). In
recent years the Turkish Government has established depots
at Aleppo, Homs, Der‘a and elsewhere for the sale of agricul
tural implements. In 1914-15 seventy-nine European ploughs
are said to have been sold in Aleppo.
The most serious defect in Syrian agriculture is its failure
to supply the ground with sufficient manure. The difficulty
of keeping live stock, owing to lack of pasture, partly accounts
for this, but not wholly. Terraces are an important feature
in the cultivation of the land. They are needed to check
the rapid disappearance of the soil from the hills. A com
plete restoration of those which have deteriorated or disap
peared would greatly increase the productiveness of the
country. In most parts of Syria many summer crops, and
especially the vegetable gardens, need irrigation. In the
neighbourhood of Jaffa numerous petroleum pumps are used
for watering the orange plantations. Many districts that
are nearly waterless in summer would become highly pro
ductive if ancient systems of irrigation were restored or new
systems created.
In Palestine the general experience of the Jewish colonies
is that a district wholly dependent upon grain crops does not
prosper. Failures of the harvest are frequent owing to
irregular or insufficient rains. It is estimated that in the
district of Gaza three harvests out of ten are complete failures.
In the Jewish colonies in Galilee disastrous successions of bad
harvests have been experienced. Delay in the early (Novem
About this item
- Content
Admiralty handbook regarding Syria (including Palestine) 'to as far north as the River Orontes and a line Antioch-Aleppo-Meskeneh. For details of the part of Syria beyond this line reference must be made to the Handbook of Asia Minor , Vol. iv, Part 2 (C.B. 847 C).'
'Contents. Chapters:
- I. Boundaries and Physical Survey, p 9 (folio 7)
- II. Climate, p 24 (folio 14v)
- III. Minerals, Flora and Fauna, p 93 (folio 50)
- IV. Military History, p 109 (folio 58)
- V. Inhabitants, p 175 (folio 91)
- VI. Turkish Administration, p 236 (folio 121v)
- VII. Agriculture, p 252 (folio 129v)
- VIII. Industry and Trade, p 276 (folio 141v)
- IX. Currency, Weights and Measures, p 318 (folio 162v)
- X. Jebel Ansarīyeh, p 325 (folio 166)
- XI. Country East of Jebel Ansarīyeh, p 344 (folio 175v)
- XII. Lebanon, Anti-Lebanon, and Damascus Plain, p 357 (folio 182)
- XIII. River Systems of Northern Syria, p 395 (folio 201)
- XIV. Judea and the Southern Desert, p 427 (folio 217)
- XV. Samaria (including Carmel), p 472 (folio 239v)
- XVI. Galilee, p 515 (folio 261)
- XVII. Haurān and Jaulān, p 556 (folio 281v)
- XVIII. 'Ajlūn and Northern Belqa, p 580 (folio 293v)
- XIX. Southern Belqa and Ardh el-Kerak, p 612 (folio 309v)
- XX. El-Jibāl and Esh-Shera, p 636 (folio 321v)
- XXI. The Ghōr (Jordan and the Dead Sea); and Wādi 'Arabah, p 645 (folio 326)
- Appendix: Conventional Spellings, p 668 (folio 337v)
- Index, p 669 (folio 338)
- Plates, p 725' [missing]
- Extent and format
- 1 volume (365 folios)
- Arrangement
The volume contains a contents page (folio 6) and an index (folios 338-365).
- Physical characteristics
Foliation: the foliation sequence commences at the front cover with 1 and terminates at the inside back cover with 367; these numbers are written in pencil, are circled, and are located in the top right corner of the recto The front of a sheet of paper or leaf, often abbreviated to 'r'. side of each folio. Pagination: the volume also contains an original printed pagination sequence. The volume originally contained fourteen plates showing maps, bound into the back of the volume. These are now missing; details of the plates can be found at folio 5v.
- Written in
- English in Latin script View the complete information for this record
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- Reference
- IOR/L/MIL/17/16/15
- Title
- 'A handbook of Syria (including Palestine). London: Naval Staff Intelligence Department, June 1919'
- Pages
- front, back, spine, edge, head, tail, front-i, 2r:366v, back-i
- Author
- East India Company, the Board of Control, the India Office, or other British Government Department
- Usage terms
- Open Government Licence