72 KRYTHkEA - AGRIClI/rUKAL ECOXOMY IX GENERAL 



To a brief examination of native agriculture, the distinction between 

 agricultural zones — which is customary among the local population and ac- 

 cepted by most botanists and explorers in Ethiopian regions — is necessar}'. 

 The natives are used to distinguish between three great zones, the different 

 characteristics and aspects of which are marked by their altitude and conse- 

 quently by the distribution of their flora. They are the Quolla or Colla 

 (Hot Land), the Uina Dega (Mountain of the \^ine) and the Dei^a (^loun- 

 tain). The first rises from the pea-level to an altitude of about 1800 me- 

 tres (i) and has an essentially tropical character. The chief crops cultiva- 

 ted in it are dura, dagussa, maize, pania, sesamum and cotton. 



The second zone is between the altitudes of 1800 and 2400 metres. Its 

 climate is temperate and suited to the cultivation of the cereals of Europe. 

 The crops special to this zone are corn crops, being a mixture of munerous 

 kinds in which predominate hard corns, barley and oats (cereals which cannot 

 be cultivated below an altitude of 2000 metres), taff, linen and some vege- 

 tables (beans, chick peas etc.). Dura, dagussa, maize, haricot beans and 

 lentils are also cultivated in these two zones. 



The third zone lies bej'ond the altitude of 2400 metres and is little 

 represented in the colon}'. Its agricultural aptitudes do not differ much 

 from those found in Uina Dega but it is better adapted to the exclusive 

 culture of corn and barle>^ 



If however the cUmatic- agricultural conditions of Er>'threa be consid- 

 ered, from the point oi view of scientific agriculture, on which the colonj-'s 

 future depends, it must be divided into six zones which we will call climatic- 

 agricultural (2). 



i) Coastal and torrid zone, having rare and torrential rain. — The land 

 adapted to agriculture is ven,^ permeable and sandy. The climate is very 

 dry and the vegetation very rare. There is a tacit convention to call this 

 region desert, but in reality it has the characteristics of a desert only where 

 the land is moving T the stable land has rather the characteristics of the 

 steppe, its vegetation consisting of thorny and gramineous plants. No 

 European practises agriculture and natives do so to a ver}- limited extent, 

 for ordinary agriculture is subject to too much uncertainty. It is however 

 a mistake to think that the coastal region of the colony could not lend itself 

 to agriculture. It has on the contrary conditions which allow of the forma- 

 tion of numerous oases, by means of the cultivation of date-trees — which 

 might in itself be very renuinerative — and the planting in theii shade of 

 cereals and plants having an industrial value, such as sorghos, dura, maize, 

 henna and the plants suited to garden cu Itivation, especially babinia — 

 which is the authentic jute — and melokia; a valued succedeneum of jute. 



2) Zone of winter rains. — Native agriculture is here habitually fairly 



(i) I metre = 1.094 j'aids. 



(2) This division follows on researches undertaken by Professor Isaia Baldrati, director 

 of the experimental agricultural bureau of the colony of Erylhrea, the results of which have ap- 

 peared in excellent publications. Among these is the report on this subject read to the Italian 

 Colonial Congress of Asmara in 1905. 



