'Mesopotamia' [‎48r] (95/152)

Mesopotamia j
PRODUCTS
85
root of the nomadic habit of the Arab, who solve it by
migration to the submontane districts. Amongst the
settled tribes green barley, rice, straw, millet, and dates
are used as food for cattle. Lucerne is grown to a small
extent in the neighbourhood of Basra, and flourishes
in the climate of Mesopotamia; it is deserving of a
much wider cultivation, both on account of its value as
a forage crop and also because, being a leguminous
crop, it w T ould prove beneficial to the soil. If Mesopo
tamia is to become the home of a settled population,
early attention should be given to devising a means to
provide fodder in the hot weather, especially for sheep.
(c) Land I enure
In Mesopotamia, nominally, at any rate, the same
system of land tenure was in force as exists throughout
the Turkish Empire; that is to say,all lands and build
ings were divided into one of five classes of property
according to their situation and the use to which they
were put. The whole system of land tenure in Turkey
has been dealt with in Handbook No. 46, Turkey in
Europe, and all that is necessary here is to refer to the
incidence of that system in Mesopotamia.
In the immediate vicinity of towns like Basra, and to
a less degree in provincial centres like Amara, the
Turkish system of land tenure was effective. Beyond
these limits Mesopotamia is still a tribal country; that
is to say, the tribes claim a prescriptive right to the
occupation of large areas, cultivated or uncultivated,
the latter being the undisturbed haunt of nomadic
tribes, or of the nomadic sections of half-settled tribes.
Almost the whole of the vilayets of Basra and Baghdad
are apportioned in this manner. Theoretically the
Turks ignored tribal claims; in practice they were
forced to 1 acknowledge them wherever the tribes were
grouped into large and powerful units, as was the case
on the River Tigris. In such cases they found it impos
sible to lease lands to any but the tribal sheikhs. The
sheikh thus occupied much more than his nominal pos-