'Military Report on Mesopotamia (Iraq)' [‎18r] (40/226)

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apparatus in use is a wooden plough drawn by mules,
oxen, or donkeys. The system of cultivation is analogous
to that obtaining in manorial times in England, i.e., the
extensive system where each village annually ploughed
and cross-ploughed about half its lands and left the other
half fallow. To date, modern methods and implements
have not been introduced, but many farmers are eager to
acquire ploughing and threshing machinery hitherto
unavailable. With these, improved tillage and crop
rotation a considerable trading surplus of grain can be
produced.
(c) Land Tenure—It seems that originally cultivated
lands beyond Crown properties belonged to peasant
proprietors, who for various reasons—chiefly the need of
protection and capital—have surrendered their lands into
the hands of the Aghawat and absentee landlords. In
many cases the lands are held as a benefice or fief under
some such contract as follows:—“ I shall continue to till
the land and pay you a rent in money, in produce, in
labour or in fighting, so long as you protect me from
Badawin raids.” _ In other cases various villages or a
group of villagers possess legal “ sanads ” for pieces of
land. Many of these “ sanads ” are held by several
antagonistic groups for the same piece of land. In other
cases there are constant disputes about particular pieces
of land, as the demarcation of the land per “ sanad ” has
taken transitory objects such as small mounds or nebulous
streams as boundary marks. The Turks also sold many
“ sanads ” for the same piece of land to different persons.
The difficulties arising from Turkish jobbery is of some
political consequence even now, as whole villages are often
in arms against each other at the ploughing season and
harvest over pieces of ground. A land commission would
remove a very pressing source of discontent.
(d) Forestry—The only so-called forest in the Iraq
portion of Northern Jazirah is furnished by scrub on the
Jabal Sin jar. The use of this for fuel and charcoal leads
to a large annual diminution of the wood supply, and
nothing so far has been attempted in the way of planting
young trees to repair losses. At Tel Afar there is a
large plantation of fig-trees. Wood supplies for a column
in the district could be got from Sinjar.
(r) Jjnnd Settlement .—There are large areas of
cultivable land at present unoccupied owing to lack of
labour and insecurity. In the Tel Afar district alone
it would be possible without expense on immigration to