'IRAQ AND THE PERSIAN GULF' [‎301v] (605/862)

466 IRRIGATION, AGRICULTURE, AND MINOR INDUSTRY
increasing in 1935 to a dangerous extent. Another beetle larva
(Oryctes) attacks the crowns of palms but is less widespread. A
saprophytic fungus and grey scale (Parlatoria Blanchardi) are less
common and do less damage.
Stock breeding
Probably as many families depend upon stock breeding for their
livelihood as upon cultivation of crops. It is the sole source of wealth
of the semi-nomadic or shawiya tribes (p. 336) and many of the
fellahin Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour. tribes also keep sheep and cattle. Statistical information
about herds and flocks is even more unsatisfactory than for agricul
ture, so that it is difficult to assess the balance of value between herds
and crops, but it is noteworthy that in the export trade the total value
of animal exports is about two-thirds that of agricultural exports.
Yet stock breeding is regarded in official circles as but a step-child.
Far greater attention has been paid to the development of agriculture,
and the general policy of all governments since the time of Midhat
Pasha An Ottoman title used after the names of certain provincial governors, high-ranking officials and military commanders. has been to convert shepherd nomads into cultivators, largely
for political reasons and in the interest of the landowners. But it is
by no means certain that the improvement of stock breeding, particu
larly of sheep, does not offer a simpler and equally suitable method
of enriching the population. The myth of Babylonia and the fascina
tion of irrigation have perhaps had an undue influence on economic
policy. Agriculture and stock breeding do not seem to have been
regarded as complementary forms, yet even in the primitive system
of Iraq they are so. The limiting factor of stock breeding is irregu
larity of natural grazing and the inadequacy of fodder supplies,
particularly in southern Iraq. The basic agricultural problems—
such as soil salination, the shifting of cultivation and of the fellahin Arabic for ‘peasant’. It was used by British officials to refer to agricultural workers or to members of a social class employed primarily in agricultural labour.
population, and the extreme dependency of the cultivators for the
disposal of second-class products upon an overcrowded world market
—all these might well be modified by a more systematic interrelation
of stock breeding and cultivation. At present fodder crops are seldom
grown, and the custom of pasturing the flocks of the nomadic tribes
upon the fallow fields of the cultivators is unsystematic and uncon
trolled.
Sheep and goats, cattle and camels, are the animals bred for their
produce, of which sheep and goats predominate (Table I, p. 476).
Beasts of burden or draught include the ubiquitous donkey, cattle
and buffaloes, camels, mules and horses.