358 NATURAL HISTORY OF ARABIA. 



Yemen, where there is a settled government, husbandry is in 

 a more prosperous condition than in Syria or Mesopotamia. 

 "Wliole fields are cultivated like gardens. Great pains are 

 taken in watering them, though the Arabs have not adopted 

 the hydraulic machinery which is used by their neighbours in 

 Eg}'pt and India. Their plough is of a very rude construc- 

 tion. It is dragged over the ground in every direction by 

 oxen, until the surface is sufficiently broken and loosened 

 for the reception of the seed. On the banks of the Eu- 

 phrates sometimes asses and mules are employed in this 

 labour, ^\^:lere the ground is hilly and not accessible to the 

 plough it is dug by the hoe ; and this implement is some- 

 times so large as to require the management of two men, 

 one of whom presses it into the earth, while the other pulls 

 forward with a cord. 



The crops most common in Arabia are wheat, barley, rice, 

 millet, maize, dhourra, dokoun, and safra. The two latter 

 yield small round yellow grains, which the Bedouins grind to 

 flour, and subsist on during winter. No oats are sown in 

 any part of Hejaz ; but they grow in other districts of the 

 country. There is great variation in the season both of 

 sowing and reaping. In Nejed wheat and barley are sown in 

 October and gathered in April. Rice is sown in June, and 

 comes to maturity in September. The seedtime for dhourra, 

 maize, dokoun, and safra is May ; and they are reaped in 

 August. No rice is cultivated in Nejed, owing to the aridity 

 of the climate ; but it grows abundantly in El Hassa, Oman, 

 and Yemen, where nature has supplied the means of irriga- 

 tion. In the Hauran, where there is plenty of water, the 

 peasants sow winter and summer seeds ; but where they 

 have to depend entirely upon the rainy season nothing can 

 be cultivated in sununer. The first harvest is that of horse- 

 beans, at the end of April, of which vast tracts are sown ; 

 next comes the barley harvest, and the wheat towards the 

 end of May. In abundant years this grain sells at fifty 

 piastres the gharara, or about 21. 10s. for fifteen cwt. In 

 the southern provinces there is a material change both as to 

 the time and the relative produce of the harvest. At Mus- 

 cat wheat and barley are sown in December, and reaped 

 about the end of March ; while dhourra is sovm in August, 

 and ripens in November. This difference of seasons may be 

 remarked even within the narrow extent of the province of 



