"تقارير إدارة أقسام ومناطق الأراضي المحتلة في بلاد الرافدين لسنة ١٩١٨. المجلد I" [و‎‎٢‎١‎٩] (٤٧٠/٤٤٢)

419
Tuz Khurmatu
Net crop if -
-
-
Irrigated.
Bain.
100
100
Government revenue share -
10
10
Water
-
5
Bent of earth
.
5
K
Cesses
Eallah
-
_
■ 2 J
- 7?i
fJ
2-k
821-
Thus Goyernment shares from land at Tuz are—
Baiyat.
Dauda and Town,
Irrigated.
Rain.
Irrigated.
Rain.
Sanniyah - - _ . .
22|*
17|
17!
17!
Tapu
17!
12!
12!
12!
*
t
Compare with 27| in Kifri and Qarah Tappa]
12 |
The only reason one can see for these differences is that—
(i) In Kifri and Qarah Tappah the owner of the land has to incur expenses in
order to provide irrigation, while in the Baiyat Muqata'ah of Tuz Khurmatu the only
expenses are the wages of w r ater watchmen, for which Government takes 5 per cent,
water share from sanniyah ; and apparently because the tapu lands are considered not
entitled to water, the Government also takes 5 per cent, from the tapu owner. In
the nuqata ahs of Daudah and Tuz itself the water (natural streams) is considered as
causing neither the tapu owner nor the Government any expenses. (There is very
little tapu in the Daudah district.)
(ii) The saifi rents and water charges are high, apparently because it is considered
that, while the fallah has to labour hard to produce winter crops, and is therefore
entitled to large shares, he can produce rice and simsim (the usual crop of this district)
without any trouble. AH the fallah need do is to shape his “ marazah ” and sow, and
the earth and the w ater provided by the owmer of the ground do the rest. This theory
would not work in the case of the Daudah muqata’ahs and Tuz town—wdiere the water
is a natural river and an almost natural stream respectively—w r ere it not that in
neither are saifi crops of any extent grown.
Off saifi crops on tapu lands the owner of the land received 40 per cent, of the
crop, and in sanniyah lands the Government received 52J per cent.—more than half
the crop.
Saifi crops are harvested, the first saifi in May and June, the second saifi in August,
September, October. The first saifi is counted for purposes of revenue and rent as a
shitwi crop. The reason of this seems to have been that it was sown very early and
was ripe for harvest almost as soon as the wheat and that it was too small a quantity
to trouble about. Also it was certainly a cheaper crop to produce and did not
require, on the part of the tapu owner, so much labour or expenditure on the means
of irrigation. This consideration, I feel, is the real reason of the great difference
between the shares of winter and saifi crops.
The effect of the low rates on winter crops and the high rates on saifi crops must
have been to encourage the former and discourage the latter. In actual fact, from
this cause or not, the cultivators of this district usually found the winter crop so
profitable that many did not trouble to grow" saifi crops, except a little rice and
simsim.
. . . . * •' : j . ,j ■ .. . . *
The rates of taxation and rent are much lower than in ‘Iraq generally, and,
although supplemented as elsewhere by Wargi andTamattu, they do not seem to have
been more than the country could hear. It is admitted that before the w r ar the
peasantry were prosperous and would have been contented had their rulers governed,
F f 2