DAHR. LEBANON — CRIST 423 



up a more abundant life to the peasant, results rather from the social 

 organization than from any other cause. A keen and sympathetic 

 student of the peoples of the Near East concludes : "Old, inefficient 

 farming practices are pursued in the shadow of the new motor pumps, 

 and poverty, ill health, and ignorance are still the lot of the majority. 

 The new agriculture represents the uncoordinated efforts of individ- 

 uals, when what is really needed is a radical comprehensive scheme of 

 rehabilitation on a large regional scale, including soil and water con- 

 servation and major social changes. Unhappily, such a program is 

 unlikely ever to be realized." ® 



Although the village of Dahr enjoys a climate without too great 

 fluctuations and has been spared the economic and social burden of 

 the worst features of landlordism, it is felt that from this short study 

 it is possible to draw certain conclusions which have more than local 

 application. 



The countries of the Near East will in the foreseeable future inevi- 

 tably remain primarily agricultural areas whose wealth will continue 

 to be dependent upon the peasant, the fellah. Conamercial activity 

 will also depend upon the prosperity of the peasant whose produce 

 mainly supplies the market and who is the consumer, by and large, 

 of most of the goods of the merchant. Industrialization will certainly 

 continue to be based to a large extent upon the processing of locally 

 grown agricultural products. Hence the long-term capital accumula- 

 tion necessary to the development of the Near Eastern countries is 

 contingent upon increased agricultural production, upon which in 

 turn will depend the more ample and richer diets, the improved con- 

 ditions of public health, and the better educational facilities, which 

 will in turn help further to increase agricultural production, and so 

 on in an upward spiral. 



•Lewis, Norman N., Selemlya, Three Years After, Geographical Review, vol. 40, No. 3, 

 p. 480, July 1950. 



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