'A handbook of Syria (including Palestine). London: Naval Staff Intelligence Department, June 1919' [‎228v] (461/738)

450 JUDAEA AND THE SOUTHERN DESERT
The outstanding products of the plains are cereals (barley,
wheat, dhura), sesame, oranges, grapes, almonds, melons, and
vegetables. Here the areas under cultivation are much more
extensive than on the hills, especially around Gaza and Jaffa ;
but even so it should be borne in mind that, at present, the
greater part of the plain lies untilled and is given over largely
to natural vegetation (wild grasses and grains, succulent plants
and hosts of wild flowers), affording merely pasturage for cattle,
very little of which, however, lasts through the summer.
Agriculture is carried on, on modern scientific lines, only
at the various Colonies (Jewish and German). For details
of the culture and products of the Jewish centres, see I.D. 1203. 1
For the German Colonies, see p. 192 and p. 512.
The principal areas of cultivation, where native methods
still prevail, are the following :
(1) Gaza district. The main winter crop between Rafah
and Mej del and extending inland almost to Beersheba, where
the soil is light and will not bear wheat so profitably, is barley ;
comparatively little barley is grown in the rest of Palestine.
Gaza barley is specially characterized as ‘ long, curved, tender,
and very white in colour unless it has been touched by rain
The success of the crop depends almost entirely on the early
spring rains of March and April and in a good year it is esti
mated that as much as 40,000 tons are available for export.
The barley of Gaza is the first to appear on the market and
is therefore in great demand. The summer crop of Gaza is
dhura, sown early in May but requiring a good deal more
preparation of the soil, and this crop is the mainstay of the
people. But few dry vegetables (lentils, horse-beans, &c.)
are produced in the Gaza district; but, around the town,
there are many large orchards and green vegetable gardens,
all under irrigation by the nd‘urah. The orchards are said
to produce more pomegranates than any other locality, but
few oranges are grown ; there are also extensive olive groves.
The palms in the Gaza district are poor and the crop not
1 The Jewish Colonies in Palestine (1882-1914), compiled by the Admiralty
Naval Staff Intelligence Department, January, 1919.