1926
After collecting a large sample of different varieties and mailing them, I went to northern Syria, via Homs, Hama and Aleppo, from where I intended to go by car in the direction of Mesopotamia (Iraq) to the Euphrates river. This large area is the granary of Syria. It is inhabited by typical, slender Arabs in burnooses and turbans. The fields of wheat reach as far as the eye can see. Enormous areas are sown.
Syrian threshing floor, picture by Frank Hurley, from National Library of Australia
Already there are attempts here at a kind of mechanization, e.g. utilization of peculiar, primitive threshing machines. In general the ordinary Mediterranean kind of agriculture dominates, including the use of the Latin type of plow, which does not turn over the soil strata, and threshing by means of wooden boards with flint pieces driven into them, which thresh the grain spread out with spades. The sowing is done during autumn. This is a monoculture. Mainly hard wheat and distichous barley are cultivated.
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