Report to the ... Zionist Congress and to the Council of the Jewish Agency in ... · 1935-08-01 · 8.1935 · p. Seite 368

(d) Bananas. Thanks to favourable climate, suitable soil and cheap water,, the banana plantations in the Jordan valley produced very satisfactory results. The area of banana plantations in the settlements, is 94 dunams. The Plantations area in the Zionist Settlements in dunams.. Place. anges. i ft-w rt'S (U a S > nanas. rious. "ni u O u 5 OÜ > o rt m « > O h Judea and Sharon 1,267 112 240 48 1,667 Valley of Esdraelon ... 46 1,027 2,161 324 1 915 4,474 Jordan Valley ...... 5 335 97 22 93 4 556 Total ...... 1,318 1,474 2,498 346 94 967 6,697 (Further details in Table 7.) 2. Production and Consumption. According to the report of the Tenuva, its sales of fruit fortius year amounted to £P. 29,057.217. Fruit to the value of £P. 163.000 was imported from abroad, a fact which proves that the settlements do not yet supply even the staple products of the: population. 5. Grain Fields and Hay under Irrigation. This is one of the branches which is noted for its highly satisfactory achievements, and thanks are due for these to the Agricultural Experimental Station and to the director of the Extension Service, Mr. S. Zemach. From exploited soil giving a. most meagre yield, we achieved grain yields which are in no way inferior to those of the most civilised countries. Instead of 60« kilograms per dunam, which was the yield at the beginning of our colonisation enterprise, our grain fields now obtain 125-150 kilograms per dunam, while the yield of barley exceeds 200 kilograms per dunam. Maize, which was introduced into our settlements as summer crop, replacing durrha and sesame, provides juicy crops for sillage in the non-irrigated areas and supplies seeds for feeding cattle. Although grain fields surfer frequently from drought, mice plague, etc., yet their value is of great importance in the economy of the Jewish farmer, because they provide the household and stable needs. The grain fields have reached a high level thanks to rational cultivation, suitable manuring, fixed crop rotation and timely sowing and reaping. Mechanisation contributed considerably towards the reduction of labour costs, as the tractors, sowing machines, combines and the automatic press reduce to a. minimum the number of labourers employed. The results of this, branch in 5694 are given in Table 8. 368