PROBLEMS AND RESULTS IN ISRAEL 391 
TABLE 1 
Number of Agricultural Settlements in the Negev between 1945 and 1955 
Phytogeographical region 1945 1950 1955 
Irano-Turanian II 38 46 
Saharo-Sindian 2 8 15 
rain water. The latter is what we call ‘‘desert agriculture” in the 
following pages. 
The reason for using only the natural precipitation is twofold: 
1. The relative scarcity of one of the most important natural 
resources of Israel, i.e., water, necessitates its more rational use. 
2. Irrigation water from the north cannot economically be 
raised the necessary 500 meters and conducted over great dis- 
tances to the few arable patches scattered here and there in the 
Negev. 
The whole project aims at trying to collect information about 
the possibility of maintaining a larger population in an extremely 
arid area, by the sole use of its natural water resources, and is, 
therefore, highly experimental. The results which this project 
would achieve may be of universal importance in similar arid 
zones elsewhere. 
The first results of five years of experimental desert agriculture 
carried out by a large team of research workers* will be summed 
* The main cooperating agencies are: 
1. The Israeli Ministry of Agriculture (Departments of Water 
Utilisation, Soil Conservation and Ecology). 
2. The Israeli Ministry of Development. 
3. The Israeli Government Department of Antiquities. 
4. The Israeli Government Meteorological Service. 
5. United States Operations Mission in Israel, Sections of Range 
Development and Water Spreading. 
6. The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and its Departments of 
Botany, Geology, Geography, Archaeology and Agriculture. 
7. The Technion in Haifa (Divisions of Hydraulics, Agricultural 
Engineering, and Soil Conservation). 
8. The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. 
g. The Agricultural Experiment Station in Rehovot, especially its 
departments of Soil Science and Field Crops. 
(Footnote continued on page 392.) 
