'Handbook of Mesopotamia. Vol. I. 1918' [‎177] (186/568)

AGRICULTURE AND LAND TENURE
177
in these provinces. It seems that a good deal of wheat and barley is
also grown in the Seruj and Urfeh—Harran districts.
Wheat and barley are generally sown either in September and
October or between November and the end of January, i.e. either
before or after the first cold days of winter. In some districts it is
usual to wait for the first autumn rains before sowing. The earlier
sowing [Mrfi) seems to produce crops which thrive better, and, as
they ripen in good time, are more likely to escape the attacks of
locusts than those raised from the later sowing {(itl/li). Barley
sown in September in the Hilla district is high enough to afford
fodder for cattle in November, and after being eaten down once
springs again with greater vigour. In the Basra vilayet one reason
for late sowing is that tribes which grow wheat and barley frequently
migrate in autumn to the rice-lands in order to help in the harvest
there, so that their own lands are neglected till the end of December
or January. The land is only lightly ploughed, and the upturned
soil is not exposed to the sun for any length of time. After the
sowing a cross ploughing covers the seed. The harvest begins in
April. The corn is threshed after being dried in the sun. Usually
it is trod 11 en out by buffaloes or cows. The grain often suffers from
careless storage and insufficient protection against the weather.
The amounts of wheat and barley produced in Mesopotamia have
varied greatly according to the amount of rainfall, the river-levels
(abnormally high winter floods may do much damage to these crops),
and political conditions.
Mesopotamian wheat is of a hard red kind. There are white and
black varieties of barley, the white being in demand for export, the
black consumed locally, chiefly as fodder for horses. (See further on
the qualities of these grains pp. 215-16.) Experiments are being made
in Irak with Indian wheat and barley.
Beans are planted in Irak at the end of September and are
harvested at the beginning of April; green beans, however, appear
on the market about the middle of February. The beans raised are
of various kinds, among them the broad, French, and haricot
varieties.
Hurtumdn. described as " a sort ot oats ',is sown in Irak in January
and reaped about the end of May.
(b) Summer
Itice, The cultivation of rice is of great and growing
importance in Irak. The rice-lands are those which can be most
abundantly supplied with water. The most important areas of rice-
production in Irak are:
MES. I m