The Harvest In
The Latter Districts, Therefore, Is In Proportion To The Abundance Of
The Winter Rains.
The first harvest is that of horse-beans [Arabic] at
the end of April:
Of these there are vast tracts sown, the produce of
which serve as food for the cows and sheep. Camels are fed with the
flour made from these beans, mixed with barley meal, and made into a
paste. Next comes the barley harvest, and towards the end of May, the
wheat: in the interval between the two last, the peasants eat barley
bread. In abundant years, wheat sells at fifty piastres the
Gharara,[Three Rotola and a half make a Moud, and eighty Moud a Gharara.
A Rotola is equal to about five and a halfpounds English.] or about two
pounds ten shillings for fifteen cwt. English. In 1811, the Gharara rose
as high as to one hundred and ninety piastres. The wheat of the Haouran
is considered equal, if not superior to any other in Syria. Barley is
generally not more than half the price of wheat. When I was in the
Haouran, the price of an ox or cow was about seventy piastres, that of a
camel about one hundred and fifty piastres.
The lands which are not capable of artificial irrigation are generally
suffered to lie fallow one year; a part of them is sometimes sown in
spring with sesamum, cucumbers, melons, and pulse. But a large part of
the fruit and vegetables consumed in the Haouran is brought from
Damascus, or from the Arabs Menadhere, who cultivate gardens on the
banks of the Sheriat el Mandhour.
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