PART THREE. 



HUSBANDRY. 

 I. A Statistical Summary of the Products of Husbandry. 



A. The Area in Which Husbandry is Practised. Syria is a 

 limestone plateau, its average height above sea level being 800 to 

 1,000 meters. It slopes to the sea in the west and to the steppe 

 and the desert in the east, and is split in the center by a deep 

 depression. The coastal plain and the border zones of the steppes 

 as well as the depression, are, with the exception of a narrow strip 

 of sand-dunes near the sea, suited to husbandry. Much of the 

 mountain district, on the other hand, is not arable, as the loose 

 stratum of surface soil formed by the disintegration of the stone 

 is being washed away by heavy winter rains, leaving the limestone 

 bare. But sections of the slopes and all the transverse valleys (for 

 instance, the Esdraelon Valley) are very fertile, as are also the 

 Hauran, where the substratum of lime is covered by disintegrated 

 lava, and other parts of Trans jordania. In the Vilayet of Damas- 

 cus, as in the rest of Syria, it seems that 75 per cent of the land is 

 mountainous. In 1915, according to the official report, 29 per cent 

 of the Vilayet of Damascus was devoted to husbandry, of which 10 

 per cent was pasture land. 



B. Composition of the Soil. The physical and chemical 

 properties of the Syrian soil have not been thoroughly investigated. 

 Most of the available information is the result of researches made 

 by the Jewish colonists in Palestine. On the coastal plain, in the 

 depression, and in the transverse valleys the soil is generally very 

 deep, whereas in the mountain districts it forms a very shallow 

 surface stratum of not more than 25-50 centimeters. Grain and 

 flatrooted trees thrive in this soil, but not deeprooted trees. Be- 

 sides, the soil in the mountain districts is coarse grained and 

 porous. On the plain its quality is not uniform. It is either 

 very rich in clay and not porous (heavy soil) or else sandy (light 

 soil). The sandy soil was formed by a mixture of clay and sand 

 drifts. 



Wheat and sesame thrive in heavy and moderately heavy soils, 

 whereas barley does better in lighter soil. Orange trees require a 

 moderately heavy soil; almond, fig, and eucalyptus trees and vines 

 demand a light soil, and olive trees flourish in either. 



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