THE FERTILITY OF PALESTINE.
There is, apparently, a general impression that the Holy Land is, at the
present day, a barren and desolate country, and that a great change, due
not only to decay of cultivation and to disappearance of former forests,
but also to a material decrease in the rainfall, has come over the land.
These last pages are, therefore, devoted to a brief _résumé_ of the
facts collected during the prosecution of the Survey, which bear on the
question.
Palestine is described in the Pentateuch as “a good land, a land of
brooks of water, of fountains, and depths, which spring out of valleys
and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and
pomegranates, a land of oil-olive, and honey” (Deut. viii. 7, 8); and
these verses epitomise the natural features, and the cultivation of
modern, quite as well as of ancient Palestine. Two points, then, should
be considered: first, is there any change in the water-supply or
climate? secondly, is there any decrease in the amount of woodland and
forest?
The question of water-supply lies, indeed, at the bottom of the whole
inquiry. We have, unfortunately, no ancient observations which can be
compared with those now taken, from which comparison positive
information as to the _amount_ of the rainfall, and the volume of the
rivers, might be deduced; but we have very important indications that
the _character_ of the water-supply is unchanged.
In the first place, we have geological indications. Throughout the
country two formations alternate; namely, a hard crystalline limestone
of the Neocomian period, and a soft, porous chalk, or marl, of the
Cretaceous epoch. Where the hard limestone prevails springs occur,
especially at the juncture with the over-lying, porous, and
unconformable chalk, but where there is a great thickness of this
latter, the water-supply is either from deep wells or from artificial
tanks and cisterns. We have no reason for supposing the geological
formation to have undergone any change since the days of Moses; and
indeed we have every reason for judging that the distribution of the
springs was then the same as now; for those parts which are now dry and
desert--the Negeb, or “dry land,” the Jeshimon, or “solitude,” the
wildernesses of Ziph, Maon, and Bethaven--receive titles in the Bible
which are derived from the dry and barren appearance that these
districts also presented in earlier times.
Secondly, we find that the Hebrew terms, used for various kinds of
natural or artificial sources of water, are still in use, and of these
terms no less than eight refer to tanks, pools, or cisterns: the Hebrew
words ’Ain (a spring), Nahr (a perennial stream), Bir (a well), Jubb (a
ditch), Hufr (a pit), Birkeh (a tank), Bassah (a marsh), are still
ordinary words in the language. The springs mentioned individually in
Scripture--the fountains of Samaria and of Jezreel, of Engedi and
Jericho, for instance, are found to be still plentiful and perennial;
and it must not be forgotten that there are twelve considerable streams
in the country, which contain water even to the end of the dry season,
without counting the Jordan.
Thirdly, the great numbers of ancient tanks and cisterns, occurring in
the districts where there are no springs, and in connection with Jewish
ruins and Jewish tombs, show the necessity which existed, even at an
early period, of storing rain-water for the supply of the towns.
Yet further, we can prove that the character of the seasons is
unchanged. In the Mishna, there are minute directions regarding the
prayers to be put up for rain. The supplications commenced in October,
and continued until the Passover was finished. Three days of fast
occurred in the end of October, if no rain had fallen, and three more
about the middle of November. “But if these days of fasting be not
heard, then shall they leave off selling and buying, the building of
houses and the planting of trees, marrying and giving in marriage, and
they shall leave off greeting one another ... until the end of the month
Nizan (the middle of April). For if no rain be given until then, it is a
manifest sign of the curse, since it is said, ‘Is it not wheat harvest
to-day?’” (Mishna, Taanith I.).
From this extract it is clear that rain was expected in October, at
which time the first showers now begin, and was not expected later than
the middle of April, when the “latter rain” or spring showers now fall;
between these limits the rainy season is continuous, the heaviest storms
being in January, and the average annual rainfall about twenty inches.
It is also recorded that years of drought have, from the earliest times,
occurred at intervals (as mentioned in the history of Abraham, or of
Jacob, or in the time of Ahab), just as dry years still afflict the
country from time to time.
As regards the seasons, and the character and distribution of the
water-supply, natural or artificial, there is thus, apparently, no
reason to suppose that any change has occurred; and with respect to the
annual rainfall (as observed for the last ten years), it is only
necessary to note that, were the old cisterns cleaned and mended, and
the beautiful tanks and aqueducts repaired, the ordinary fall would be
quite sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants, and for irrigation.
The climate has, however, to all appearance materially changed for the
worse. The plains of Jericho are no longer a “region fit for gods,” and
the climate of the maritime plains, in autumn, is little less than
deadly; but this would indicate, not a decrease, but, if anything, an
increase, in the amount of rain, as the miasma is due to the stagnant
water collecting in marshes and pools. The main cause of the malarious
nature of the climate, seems to be the neglect of proper drainage. The
splendid works of the Romans are in ruins; the great rock-cuttings,
which let out to the sea the water now soaking in the marshes of Sharon,
are filled up with earth; Herod’s aqueducts, which irrigated the plains
of Jericho, are destroyed, and no attempt is ever made to enforce
sanitary regulations, or to promote public drainage or irrigation works.
Turning next to the question of the decrease of timber, it is important
first to obtain a clear idea of the character of the old vegetation
described in the Bible. It will then appear that the change is not one
of kind, but only of degree.
The ordinary words, used in the Hebrew of the Old Testament, for the
wild growth of the country are three--Choresh, Jaar, and Etz, none of
which are now employed in the modern nomenclature. Choresh means
“tangled,” and would thus apply to copse, rather than to timber-forest;
Jaar signifies “luxuriant,” and would also refer to thickets of dwarf
trees and of shrubs, quite as well as to forest trees; Etz is a “strong
tree,” but this does not imply that the tree forms one of a large
number, for the word is often used of single trees.
The wild growth of the country now consists generally of single trees,
and of scrub or copse. In Galilee there are good-sized trees, but none
in Judea, excepting solitary sacred oaks and terebinths, sycamores, and
carob trees. The western slopes of the watershed are thickly clothed
with dark lentisk bushes, dwarf oak, spurge laurels, hawthorn, and a
variety of other shrubs, which spread over the ridges, and form in parts
an impenetrable tangle. There is every reason to suppose that this is
the kind of vegetation which, in the earlier times, existed in
uncultivated districts, for it seems unlikely that, there was ever much
greater thickness of soil on the ridges, such as would be required for
forest trees.
It must not, however, be supposed that Palestine is entirely devoid of
woods. A thick forest of oak extends between Carmel and Nazareth, with
underwood below the trees in parts. An open woodland occurs on the low
hills south of Carmel, and in the northern part of the plain of
Sharon--remains of the “mighty wood” of Strabo, and the “Forest of
Assur” of the twelfth century; from these oaks Sharon takes its Greek
name Drumos, and they form some of the prettiest scenery in the Holy
Land.
There are indications, throughout the country, of a certain amount of
local change in the wild growth, and also of a decrease in the number of
trees. The old wine-presses and towers, on Carmel, and in other parts,
are now found in the middle of copses, which have evidently spread over
ancient cultivated districts; but, on the other hand, there are at
present no forest laws, and the peasants hew and even burn down the
trees for firewood (Hatab), or cut off the roots (Kormah), which are dug
up and also sold for burning; this wanton, and wasteful, annual
destruction of the trees, cannot fail to have materially affected the
appearance of the land.
The watershed of the country forms the limit of the thickets; the
western slopes, exposed to the fresh sea breeze, are covered with
shrubs, the eastern are bare and desert; this natural phenomenon is no
doubt unchangeable, and a minute examination of the country tends to
show that the eastern districts, which are now without wood, were also
treeless in Bible times.
The change in productiveness which has really occurred in Palestine is
due to decay of cultivation, to decrease of population, and to bad
government. It is man, and not Nature, who has ruined the good land in
which was “no lack,” and it is therefore within the power of human
industry to restore the country to its old condition of agricultural
prosperity.
Throughout Palestine the traces of former cultivation are well marked.
The ancient vineyards are recognisable by the rock-cut wine-presses, and
the old watchtowers are found hidden in the encroaching copse. The great
terraces carved out of the soft marl hillsides, or laboriously built up,
with stone retaining-walls, as in Italy, are still there, though they
are often quite uncultivated, and grow only thistles and thorns, which,
by their luxuriance, attest the natural richness of the soil.
The population of the land is insufficient; and it has been calculated
that Palestine might support ten times its present total of inhabitants,
if fully tilled, even though in the rude and primitive manner of the
peasantry only; and that the plains of Sharon and Philistia might, under
a proper system of irrigation, become an important corn-growing country.
The soil is as good as ever, the crops are, even now, very fine in the
cultivated parts: all, therefore, that is wanted is the men and the
money to work the land.
The following statements with regard to the present commerce of the
country, are taken from an able report by Consul Jago, which was
published in 1873, and they include the most reliable details which I
have been able to collect.
The Wâly of Syria governs 26,000 square miles, having under him eight
Mutaserefliks: namely, Damascus, Jerusalem, Acre Hamah, Tripoli,
Beyrout, the Belka and the Hauran.
The population can only be approximately estimated, as no census is
taken, and because every village and town endeavours to conceal its
numbers so as to escape taxation. The population of Syria is thought to
be about 2,250,000, the principal towns being as follows: Damascus,
175,000; Beyrout, 70,000 (of whom two-thirds are Christians); Jerusalem,
21,000; Jaffa, 8000; Nâblus, 13,000; Acre, 8000; Hebron, 9000; Haifa,
4000; Gaza, 18,000; and Sidon, 10,000. The average of a country village
is about 500 souls or rather less.
The majority of the population is Moslem, probably in the proportion of
two-thirds, even though counting the large Christian district of
Lebanon. The Druses number some 110,000, inclusive of those east of
Jordan; the Jews are stated at 40,000 in the whole of Syria; the large
majority of the Christians belong to the Greek Church.
The exports of the country are silk, cotton, wool, oil, sesame, millet,
maize, wheat, barley, tobacco, madder, sponges, and fruit. The silk is
made in Lebanon, and mulberries planted near Beyrout yield two crops,
one used for the silk-worms, the second for fodder; the wool is
purchased from the Bedawîn, especially at Nâblus; the oil is one of the
most valuable productions of the country, being of very fine quality,
especially that from Nâblus, Nazareth, Sidon, and Safed: 1800 tons were
exported in 1871. Half the produce of the oliveyards is made into soap,
about a quarter is eaten, and the rest exported. Sesame is another
important production, and oil (which is sold for olive oil) is
manufactured from it in France. Tobacco comes from the Lebanon district;
cotton has never been as yet very successfully grown; a large amount of
hemp is annually used up in making rope, and the value of the sponges
fished along the coast is said to amount to nearly £1600 every year. The
country is fitted for the growth of indigo and of sugar-cane, whilst its
fruits, including grapes, figs, melons, bananas, pomegranates, apricots,
plums, pears, and apples, oranges, lemons, and dates, are even now
plentiful and of good quality.
The imports which find their way into Palestine vary greatly at
different times, being chiefly cheap and inferior articles, such as
calicoes, cotton, and ironwork, spirits, glass, and hardware, the total
amount being about £1,000,000 annually. The want of harbours, and of any
encouragement to trade, leaves the country almost without a market. The
taxation of raw products is also said to have killed the native industry
of Palestine, and only one attempt has of late been made at mining,
namely, near Sidon, where coal (though of inferior quality) was
discovered, with copper and tin. Coal was also found in Lebanon, but the
works were abandoned after 12,000 tons had been obtained.
Such is the present condition of Palestine--a good country running to
waste for want of proper cultivation: truly may it be said, “a fruitful
land maketh He barren for the wickedness of them that dwell therein.”
There is but one fundamental cause for the ruined condition of the
country, namely, the corrupt and inefficient system of government: so
long as there is no stability or patriotism in the upper ranks, so long
will the subordinates be venal and tyrannical, and every attempt at
bettering the condition of Palestine will be foredoomed to failure.
Attention has been especially directed of late years to the question of
colonising the Holy Land. In the last chapter the history of the German
colonies has been traced, but these are not the only experiments which
have been made. One of the most practical suggestions put forward, was
the idea that the Mughrabee Jews might succeed in establishing
themselves as agriculturists; but the writer was apparently not aware
that this has actually been tried, and has failed. In 1850 there were
thirty families of these Jews at Shefa ’Amr in Lower Galilee, north-west
of Nazareth, cultivating corn and olives on their own ground: but they
gradually relinquished the task, and removed to Haifa where they engaged
in trade; for, as the Jews themselves say, agriculture is not their
vocation, and it must not be forgotten that their forefathers no sooner
became possessed of the land, than they made “hewers of wood and drawers
of water” of its primary inhabitants.
At Jaffa also many colonies have been started, the place being
convenient from its position on the coast. There is art institution
still in existence called the Mikveh Israel, or Agricultural Institution
of the Universal Jewish Alliance, cultivating 780 acres, with the object
of training children as market-gardeners, and of educating them at a
school on the property. The native peasantry are employed, but there is
a strong opposition to the institution among the surrounding villagers.
It is said that 100,000 plants have been reared in the nurseries, and
half a million of vines; but the land is close to the ever-encroaching
sand-dunes, which are computed to be advancing inland at the rate of a
yard, or even two yards, every year.
By far the most successful experiments yet made have been based on the
employment of the native peasantry. It must not be forgotten that the
present climate is quite unsuited to European constitutions, and for
this reason all attempts to till the soil, by the employment of European
labourers, are destined to certain failure. The plains in autumn are
deadly, and the hill climate is not much better. Unseasoned to the
fierce heat of the sun, and to the dryness of the climate, a European
peasant will certainly fall a prey, sooner or later, to the fever of the
country.
The native peasantry are a hardy and naturally energetic race, capable
of enduring the climate, to which they are accustomed from their birth;
and if directed by capable men, who understand them, and have authority
to deal with them, they may be made to work well. The good mining work
performed by the men of Siloam, under Captain Warren, is proof of the
capacity of the native peasantry for hard work, under competent
direction.
The northern half of the plain of Esdraelon belonged in 1872-5 to the
Greek banking firm of Sursuk, who had factors (generally Christians) in
their various villages. The productiveness of this part of the country
increased, in a most marked manner, under the management of this family.
Probably the most successful undertaking of an agricultural kind in
Palestine is the farm at Abu Shûsheh, belonging to the Bergheims, the
principal banking firm in Jerusalem.
The lands of Abu Shûsheh belong to this family, and include 5000 acres;
a fine spring exists on the east, but in other respects the property is
not exceptional. The native inhabitants are employed to till the land
according to the native method, under the supervision of Mr. Bergheim’s
sons; a farmhouse has been built, a pump erected, and various modern
improvements have been gradually introduced.
It is by these means, and not by any invasion of foreign agriculturists,
that Palestine might most easily be reclaimed, and might become a rival
in fertility even to the most fruitful parts of southern Italy, to
which, in the character of its productions and cultivation, it is very
similar.
The same hindrance is, however, experienced by the Bergheims which has
paralysed all other efforts for the improvement of the land. The
difficulties raised by the venal and corrupt under-officials of the
Government have been vexatious and incessant, being due to their
determination to extort money by some means or other, or else to ruin
the enterprise from which they could gain nothing. The Turkish
Government recognises the right of foreigners to hold land, subject to
the ordinary laws and taxes, but there is a long step between this
abstract principle and the practical encouragement of such undertakings,
and nothing is easier than to raise groundless difficulties, on the
subject of title or of assessment, in a land where the judges are as
corrupt as the rest of the governing body.
There must be a radical reform in government, before anything can be
done to restore Palestine to its former condition. The undertaking is
beyond the power of either private individuals or of semi-religious
societies, for it involves the entire opening up of the country, and the
creation of public works, which have as yet no existence.
The first requisite would be the construction of roads, for there is not
a mile of made road in the land from Dan to Beersheba. This would be a
work of comparatively little difficulty; the engineering may be said to
have been already done by the Romans, and all that is required is the
remaking of the old highways. The streams are narrow, and easily
bridged, and the metalling could be accomplished with material ready to
hand, namely, the hard limestone and beautiful flint-rock which abounds,
throughout the hills. It is extraordinary, however, to observe, that
even the Romans do not seem to have drained their roads, and to this
defect the final destruction of the ancient causeways is no doubt due.
Until roads have been made, transport by wheeled vehicles will remain
impossible, and the very rudiments of proper communication are thus
wanting.
The next great public works would be for irrigation. The lands now
covered with pestilent swamp would be reclaimed, and the water would be
carried away through the old rocky tunnels made by the great engineers
of former times; the climate would probably be sensibly affected, and
drought would be almost unknown as soon as the ancient tanks and
cisterns had been cleared and repaired. The old aqueducts might be
mended, and the complicated network in the Jordan Valley restored; the
cultivation of tropical fruits and vegetables would then become
possible, in the Ghôr, at least by the use of negro labour, which would
be easily obtained.
The third great undertaking would be the planting of the country. Forest
laws must be enacted and rigorously enforced, in order to save the
natural growth of the hills; the plantation, first of quickly growing
grass and then of Indian fig and pines, is required to check the advance
of the sand, and finally to reclaim the good soil buried beneath it. The
climate of the plains would also, no doubt, be improved by the growth of
trees suited to the situation, and the long tract north of Jaffa, now
covered with the stumps of a former forest, is, no doubt, capable of
supporting timber, such as exists farther north.
Sanitary laws must also not be forgotten, for the unhealthy character of
the towns and villages is due almost entirely to the filthiness of the
inhabitants.
Such is a slight sketch of the future which might be possible for
Palestine; but the formation of a strong, wise, and benevolent
government is the first requisite, and without this all partial attempts
will effect nothing towards the restoration of the country.
The native population are quite as well aware of these facts, as any one
from more civilised lands can be; they lay the blame of their misery on
the shoulders of their rulers, and are only too anxious to pass into
other hands. There is a very general belief that the land is destined to
become once more the property of the Christians, and the Fellahîn often
inquire of visitors when this time is to come. It may be that they
flatter the vanity of an Englishman, when they declare a preference for
an English occupation of the country; but the expression Kelim Inkleez,
“an Englishman’s word” (to which I have formerly referred), shows
clearly the high esteem in which our English countrymen stand, and
reflects the greatest credit on our Consuls, and on others, who, by
their probity and energy, have created this high public opinion of a
nation which is represented by so few individuals.
The happiest future which could befall Palestine seems to me to be its
occupation by some strong European power, which might recognise the
value of the natural resources pointed out above; but until some such
change occurs, the good land must remain a desolation.
“And thorns shall come up in her palaces, nettles and brambles in the
fortresses thereof, and it shall be an habitation of dragons, and a
court for owls” (Isa. xxxiv. 13).