LESSONS FROM SYRIA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 6, Issue 57, 19 March 1943, Page 5

LESSONS FROM SYRIA

MODERN FARM METHODS

LOCAL SOLDIER'S LETTER

PROGRESSIVE COMMUNAL SYSTEM

In a most informative letter 'Gnr. C. H. McCracken has writI "ten home giving his family details of the life and methods "employed on a communal farm in Syria. Readers who are inter--ested in studying comparisons ~wi!ll! find the text of his letter 7as absorbing as we did and l we - take great pleasure in printing : it below. He saysi that after hearing a lecture at Bierut University on the Jewish methods of farming he and .a friend decided to go to Haifa and see for themselves. They -were given •a lift on a Free French ration trnick • and in due course presented them-' ■ selves to the secretary of the Jewish Agricultural Board who soon rgot busy on the phone and arranged for them to stay at one of their •communistic or socialistic farms. "The same official personally took them to the farm sfnd introduced them round to most of the heads. He writes: — 300 Persons to 800 Acres Right from the start they seemed Just as ready to find out Avhat tluj could about New Zealand as avc •were to find out just how they were •doing a«d how they ran their place. It was. a place of 800 acres carrying :300 people so as. you will guess Avas a great amount of Avork rgoing on, in fact eA r erybody Avas doing "something. As there, is so much to Avrite about I thought that I would giA'e you a fair idea of the 'farming side and then write another letter giving the social side and the •constitution of -these places. . To begin A\ 7 ith Ave. started off by •going to their huge barns where : their hay is kept. Pressing is done 'to a large degree and a stack of hay "is something very rarely ever seen, as in the rainy season about 3 to 4 -months: in their Avinter the ground "becomes so boggy that the cattle never go outside except into big yards Avhen the daj's arc sunny. Mainly Lucerne The hay smelt wonderful and Avas "in excellent order, partly on account •of their Avonderful harvesting conditions as for 8 months of the year rain is never seen. Lucerne Avas by far the most predominant of their reserves* Avliile they told, us that a -mixture of lucerne and vetches (something • like- a Avild pea) had proved, to be the most profitable from a feeding point of view. Paspalum and Rhodes grass (like tall 'fescue) had also been grown and pressed but this Avas too coarse and not liked much by the cattle though fed to the 'horses, etc. Outside Avas a terrific stack of wheat •stubble AAiiich had also been pressi- • cd and carted home and Avas used for feeding to the horses and cattle -and also used a lot for bedding. ! From here Ave went on to the coav ' -yards Avhere eA r erv convenience is "laid on for feeding and cleanliness, -•of the cows. Foot and mouth disease "is something which these people to battle against and it Avas -only after avc had, thoroughly disinfected our boots Avere avc allowed into the sheds for a look around. The. coavs Avere in excellent condition -and milked.- for town supply three times a day and those avlio do the -milking liA r e in separate quarters 'from the rest of the community. W itli housing their cattle s.o much, 'for even in the summer they are fed •on concentrates and hard feed in the sheds at ngiht, a lot of bedding is required and when soiled this is stacked well away from the shed forming a compost heat. lit. Avas a verj large stack and Avas the source *of very valuable manures for their •gardens and orchards. The coaa'S for the greater part were showing mostly Friesian having been crossed with the. natiA'e Arab coav as neither the Friesian nor the Jersey produced Avell under the: climatic conditions while the cross *was proving quite a success. "In the hot weather the straight Jerseys or Fricsians became most restless and on the aA-erage produced •only about 20 to 254bs of milk daily; "file Arab coav being a poor milker giving only about lolbs always seemed to thrive t so that it Avas not surprising to find the cross on animals able, to stand the climatic conditions and yet answer to the feeding and so produce something more like what -one Avould expect, from a Friesian. Contagious abortion is also one of their troubles and here they are a rstep ahead, of us in that respect for

any affected cow or doubtful one is separated from the rest and milked separately. These cows do not return to the herd until they are right again so that in this way the spread is cut down to a minimum. They have their own microscope Avhieh is also a great help to the health of a caw thus: affected can be easily watched. Then again all cows are artificallj r asscminated so that the bull does not. come into direct conr tact with the cow and so once again a further check is. kept on the' spread of disease.A similar process is also carried out for their sheep bitt this work in our country would make it pretty well impossible but for stud farming it might be Avort.li while where extra .line pedigree stock are concerned. Seed Extraction Having seen pretty well all there was to he seen about the cowshed ajjd, sheep sheds we had a look around their seed cleaning plant, similar to those used in New Zealand by our seed cleaning firms. use it for all manner of seed such as wheat, maize, oats, barley, clovers, paspalum, peas, vetches in fact they harvest as much of their own seed as possible so making use of everything tiiey can. They even told, us that two years ago they sent some clover seed to Ne.w Zealand. They also have their own cool storage, a large building just recently fitted with an extra electric refrigerating plant, to booster their older system of cooling. The building is insulated with a composition new to inc. anyhow in that it was a mixture of the ground lime stone mixed with water and then blown through a force pump into a film of cement. The resulting blocks when dry were lighter than pumice and of course very porous on account of the frothy mixture. Their water cooling-system consisted of a number of pipes in the cool room through which the water circulated. On completing its round the water was pumped up onto a tray (perforated) about IGft above the building, the water then fell down inside a framework where the boards were all sloping inwards like the draught boards 011 a safe. The action of the falling water caused a draught and with quick evaporation the water lost heat vow quickly and thus was ready to go back through the cool room once again. Irrigation We also spent a lot of time down on their fields and had a good look at their irrigation scheme. For the gardens they have %in pipe laid on in rows with small holes bored to allow the water to be forced out. by the pressure and from the height of about 3ft high these pipes spray the. gardens and so a large area is done at the one time. The water is pumped at the rate of 300 cubic metres an hour to all parts of the farm and so they have plenty. The irrigation of their pastures and grasses and lucerne and crops is done by the ditch method of carrying water though it is regulated by the big taps all along the ,line. This flooding from the ditches although satisfactory as they say, is not the best on account of the scorching that takes place besides the caking of the ground afterwards with the hot sun. They hope to have in a few years a system of, spraying from a network of sprays similar though more powerful to our revolving lawn sprajf. Then they could let the. moisture soak in far more gradually and I guess they would got far better results than they are at present getting. Not up to Colonial The)* are giving the old paspalum a good treat and though it is not doing anywhere near as well as. wc know it they arc making good, progress and were very interested to learn how wc farmed it. Their maize too, like the Egyptian maize, was not up to our standard even in height or yield and here again I am sure it is onlj- this flooding of the land a"nd then the drying and caking that spoils it, though here they are endeavouring to give it a little less water and more often than in Egypt. The wheat crops were a crcdit to them and they had a yield I should imagine to be equal to some of our best. Also with their lucerne tliey were getting seven crops a year bedsides having it grazed at odd times so 3 r ou can see this land can produce •terrifically if properly treated and manured as they are doing. Wide use of Lime They are also great believers in lime 011 account of the llooding'with water and in this respect are very fortunate in having the remains (which is a colossal heap) of an old Arab village to cart out and spread on their land at the rate of 3 tons to the acrc every 3 years. This soil as it is no ay has. a 20 per cent lime content besides being very high in organic matter and so is very close to a .perfect manure but they also

use liberal quantities of super as Avell. Another branch of the. farm consisted of the orchard coA-ering an area of about 50 acres Avith yet another plot of 20 acres of citrus fruits. Apples, pears, plums and oranges seemed to be predominant Avith a small area of oranges and grapefruit and in the far corner AA*as a trial plot, of bananas Avhich Avere looking very promising. The apples and pears did not seem to be developed to the extent, of ours nor to contain the juice but the plums, oranges and lemons, to say nothing of the grapefruit, were beauties. Needless to say aa*c sampled everything avc could and not only once either, in fact avc even had to fill our shirts like small boys at one stage of. it. We spent the greater part of one day in the orchard helping them pick the plums until the area Avas covered and then spent, the remainder of the morning and part of the afternoon in the. packing shed, helping wipe off all the spray and even helped a bit towards the tail end AA'ith the grading. * Then the grapes: fancy letting us loose in 90 solid acres of grapes with scA T en different varieties to taste. These too Averc. beautifully kept and their yields were terrific even uoaa' with the season just coming into full SAving they Avere sending away over 80 cases a day which was' just about as much as they could manage Avith the labour they had. Poultry too. Avas quite a big concern lor they were gathering over 1000 eggs a day and their runs w r erc first class Avith every convenience, eA-en down to an electric cutter for their green feed. So you Avill be able to sec that the production of' these places is terrilie and ample to feed its numbers and as for us Ave had a grand time and Avere wonderfully Avell treated and feed with the milk. Avholemeal bread, fruit and salads, etc. of. which we had already had so much and believe me it was a real treat.