The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 260)

غرض

عنوان
The Dispossession of the Peasantry (ص 260)
المحتوى
244
three-year rotation did occur, then “this would be evidence for the decline in the
amount of land available to the average household and the consequences of that
decline for peasant aquiculture practices.”*’ In other words, peasants who still
cultivated land were forced into the practice of a three-year crop rotation with a
shorter fallow because a two-year rotation with a longer fallow time on a smaller
piece of land did not yield a sufficient output of wheat and barley.
As already mentioned, the growing of green fodder was an almost exclusive
European Jewish agricultural practice. Arab cultivators made little progress in the
growing of green fodder, which is essential for dairy cattle. As in the case of crop
rotation, insufficient lands, in addition to the lack of resources for irrigation, were
the main factors for this.
However, Arab peasants dedicated almost half of their cereal cultivation
area to traditional fodder crops such as barley, kersenneh, oats, and maize. In bad
rain years, the yield was insufficient to maintain their animals. Insufficient rain
also seriously affected the following summer when most animals fed on natural
grazing.*® In good rain years, the yield was sufficient but not nutritious enough
for dairy cattle.*’ This perhaps partially explains the lack of development of a
dairy industry among Arab cultivators. Accordingly, the processing and marketing
of dairy products remained primarily a traditional domestic-based activity to the
37Kamen, 200.
Brown, “Agriculture,” 173.
Kamen, 219.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
تاريخ
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المنشئ
Riyad Mousa

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