own land under its own vines and fig trees. And even from the standpoint of safety more is to be gained by developing readier means of communication and transporation than by crowding the people into small inaccessible villages.
In spite of all that has been said of the devastation of Palestine, the country has rich possibilities of agricultural development. The prevailing notion that the Promised Land is now a hopeless desert rests largely on the impressions of travelers who confine themselves to the regular tourist route from Jaffa up to Jerusalem and then down to Jericho and the Dead Sea. The districts visited on such a trip give about as correct an idea of the country as might be obtained if a visitor to California were to land at Los Angeles or San Diego, and then travel over the mountains to Indio and the Salton Sea. Even the most recent account of Palestine, written by a professional geographer, shows a very inadequate appreciation of the factors that determine the agricultural possibilities of the country.[1]
The agricultural possibilities of Palestine are not likely to be appreciated by visitors from Europe and America until some readily accessible part of the country is developed on the basis of farm homes. People who live in crowded villages are not likely to attain any very high degree of agricultural prosperity or to make very rapid agricultural progress. What the colonists have been able to accomplish under their present methods of living affords ample evidence of a self-sacrificing determination, worthy, not of a better cause, but of a better course, more directly aimed toward agricultural improvement.
The natural conditions are undoubtedly favorable, and the desire for agricultural progress exists, but effective combination of the two elements must also be secured. The leaders among the colonists are no longer resting their hopes for the future upon securing political control of the country through purchase or diplomatic negotiations. Whatever the political status of the country the essential conditions will remain the same, in the sense that the whole resident population must be considered in any program that is to assure the permanent progress of the colonists. Thus the human problem is even more serious than the agricultural problem. The human environment of the colonists needs to be improved, no less than the agricultural environment. The only possible solution of either problem is through agricultural and
- ↑ See Huntington, E., "Palestine and its Transformation," 1911. This author considers it very unfortunate that most of the rain comes in the winter instead of in the summer season when the crops are growing, but overlooks the further facts that nearly all of the precipitation occurs in the form of very gentle rain, and that the granular limestone soil is extremely well adapted to absorb and retain the moisture till the crop season arrives. The sesame and sorghum crops grow without any rain, on moisture stored in the soil by dry farming methods.
