'Reports of administration for 1918 of divisions and districts of the occupied territories in Mesopotamia. Volume I' [‎13v] (31/470)

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having passed without the necessary water being available, and to the presence
of almost a whole division of troops in his district.
The wheat and barley seed supplied by the Agricultural Department for the
1919 harvest was again late in arriving, but the armistice with Turkey, and consequen
relaxation of restraints of trade, resulted in a large influx of grain into the Division,
so that the cultivators were able to supply their own seed without the mterven ion
of the Administration.
The amount of land under cultivation in 1918 was as follows :
I have taken a faddan, which is the Arab standard of measurement, as equal
to 15 acres, and a baqrah as 12 acres for lift cultivation. This I found was about
the correct average.
Area under summer crop was as follows :—
Ba‘qubah 8,850 acres
Shahraban 8,094 ,,
Dali ‘Abbas not available.
Daltawah - „
Captain Webster, the Agricultural Circle Officer, has furnished me with the
following note on the agriculture of the Division. This sums up the agricultural
situation in the Division.
Agriculture (by Captain Webster).—The District is a promising one from an
agricultural point of view, being well irrigated by canals from the Diyalah River,
which maintains a sufficient flow of water even in the summer months to supply
the various canals; but, unfortunately, the lack of good head-works has prevented
the water supply in the canals from being sufficient for the needs of agriculture.
Steps are being taken to remedy this by building a new head to the Khalis Canal
(right bank), and making a cut from the Mahrut Canal to the Khurasan Canal
(left bank), thus making the good head-work of the former replace the present
unsatisfactory arrangement at the head of the latter. The former work will be
completed by early January 1919, and the latter, it is hoped, in time for the low
water season of 1919.
The main agricultural crop of the district is barley. About four times as
much barley as wheat is grown, and, generally speaking, the former is of relatively
higher quality. The greatest need of the District is pure line strains of seed.
At present all the seed is hopelessly mixed in quality. Barley collected from the
sack of the sower shows as many as five or six distinct varieties; and wheat is some
what worse, containing hard, soft, red and white wheat, and an admixture of
barley and wild oats to an extent of as much as 50 per cent.
Pure Indian wheat is being grown with a view to issuing it as seed, but it is
probable that more satisfactory results would be obtained by judicious selections
from some of the better varieties of seed present in the ordinary country sample.
This is, however, a lengthier process. Up to the present the Arab has not realised
either the superiority of wheat as a crop to barley, or the importance of clean crops.
The reason for this is that he has grown largely for internal consumption. If the
country is to have any prosperity, a ready market must be found for excess
production, and in the present state of the world’s market only first quality grain
can hope to find a paying position.
For the most part, soil conditions appear to be quite favourable to the growth
of wheat, though lighter patches of the alluvium do occur, on w{iich wheat would
probably never be a paying crop.
Winter Crop.
Wheat and Barley. Total.
Dali ‘Abbas
Daltawah
Ba‘qubah
Shahraban
22,134 acres
22,833 „
8,118 „
28,437 „