Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 342

The Extension Service in this branch included the f ollowing : 1. Visits to the settlements, and giving advice on the handling of machinery, its upkeep, etc. 2. Giving technical assistance in special cases. 3. Advice and instructions to the settlements with regard to the acquisition of machinery. 4. Technical lectures. 5. The testing of machines and new working implements, such as tractors and combines from various firms. 6. Investigation regarding appropriate machines for the purification of seeds. 7. Improvements in and repairs of machines. 8. A monthly course was held in the Haifa Technical Institute, in conjunction with the Falha Farmers' Association, for mechanics in the settlements. They worked five hours per day in the workshops of the Institute. In addition to that, for three hours daily they attended theoretical lectures on motors, pumps, installation of pipes, tractors and motor-cars, electricity, technology and mechanical drawing. The cooperation of all these bodies proved very useful. Part II. Agricultural Achievements. 1. The Agricultural Settlements of the Agency. a. Initial Steps. The Zionists in their agricultural work in Palestine had no tradition behind them, nor any guidance by experts who had lived in the country for many years, and arrived at conclusions based on observations and experiments, but they grappled in the dark and had to face many difficulties which were due to inexperience. It is, therefore, hardly surprising that Jewish agriculture in Palestine had many setbacks before it attained its present position. The Zionist aim was to settle on the land pioneers who had no previous agricultural experience nor any in manual labour. These people were town-dwellers and in Palestine they had to become accustomed to the primitive conditions of the Arab fellah or the Jewish farmers who were engaged in extensive cultivation or in plantations of a mono-culture nature. b. Type of Settlement. The poor state of agriculture in Palestine actuated the Zionists to declare war on poverty, to look for a better type of settlement and to create a more productive agriculture. The Zionists chose mixed farming, which enabled the farmer to derive, by systematic work, a maximum of benefit, instead of single farming, which is always dependent on the climate on the one hand and on foreign markets on the other, making it subject to the slightest fluctuations in economic life in Palestine or abroad. In the first instance the question of self-sufficiency for the farmer's family and its live stock had to be tackled, and of secondary importance was the question of marketing the surplus production. The aim was to have as large a surplus as possible in order to supply the home market. 342