The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1890-03-06
7he SA9erall and S9Rw5.
PUBLISHED
EVERY THURSDAY AT
NEWBERRY, S. G.
Farming in the Holy Land

= tGaJ "nSu We are SluoS ny II VIC a. =
studying the methods of the time of
Abraham. Most Of the country is
covered with stones, like parts of New
England, 50, that it may be truly said
OF it that it has "two or three of stone
to one Of dirt.n 4 man said to friend
there, "W'here do you get the stones to
make all these fences ~ 'Why, on
the ground; don't you see them lying
all around here:' 'Ies, bat don't
miss anyn'
The stones are being constantly
broken up by the elements and cultiva-
ton and the people throw the loose ones
in the fence rows. So you will see the
fences thus widened by these stones
cast against them until they are six or
eight feet high and wide enough to
drive team on the top.
The plough they use is the same
plough that has been used there for the
past four thousand years. They are
not progressive people, although they
think themselves the "salt OF the
EARTH and that we are barbarians.
They call us "kelb nasranuy," which
means in their language, the Arabic,
christian dog This illustrates their
enterprise.
When De Lesseps was building the
Suez Canal he tried to get them to use
the wheelbarrow tc haul away the dirt,
which they had been carrying away in
their hats. To save his life he couldn't
make them wheel the barrows. They
would shovel them full Of earth and
then lift them up and carry them back
every time.
Their ploughs make no furrow at all,
bat only scratch the ground little,
throwing little both ways like our old
fashioned shovel ploughs, although
not by any means so good as they
were. When they get it scratched
over they SOW the seeds broadcast
as we used to before the days of
the drill. To cover it they walk
their sheep, goats, camels and
other animals over the sowed ground,
and it grows up and heads out as it does
here, withoutany further attention, un-
I. til. it is headed, when it is big enough to
steal and has to be watched day and
night 70 keep the neighbors from TAX
ing it of by stealth. And the people
and the animals cut it down, cutting
across the field both ways. The fences,
wide and tall enough at places, have
great gaps in them, through which
ANYBODY can ride or walk. Onr party
of sixteen persons on horseback gal
loped right over wheat field several
miles long when it was headed out and
.:in the in;lk,n and nobody seemed to
care, and our guide said to US that ut
was the custom of the country"
They raise quantities of grapes there.
You'll see a field covered over with
what looks like walking sticks, in rows
some fifteen feet spart both ways and
about four feet long. Look close and
you will see that one end of this stick
: is fast in the ground. These ,are the
grapevines. When they begin to bud
aud blossom they take a forked stick
some three feet. long and prop up the
loose end with it, and the grapes before
they are ripe, and two-legged foxes in
abundance forage on them whenever
they get a chance. A circular tower
twenty-five high is built in the centre
of the vineyards, hollow in the middle,
and spiral staircase..built inside, and
a man or boy is kept on top of it day
and night from the time the grapes are
big enough to steal until they are all
gathered in. They make them into
wine which everybody drinks.there in
stead OF water. One man said he had
a prejudice against water ever since ne
had heard Of so many people being
drowned by it in the flood.
All the implements which are used
for tilling the. soil are carried out 10
the field in the morning and brought
back at night and pllt inside the walls
of their towns, and all the people 60 in
too, to keep from being robbed of all
they have, even the clothes off their
backs. The women do the hardest
work all over the country. I met a
man riding a donkey into Jerusalem,
smoking q long pipe and his wife
trndging along behind him with a
baby strapped on her back and carry
ing a plough and harrow, with which
they had been tending their crop. The
men always have theslightest work to
do. I saw: man holding the plough
handle who had a COW and his wife
hitched upand pulling the plough for
him. In this way, and sometimes
with little oxen or q camel, they will
manage to scratch over quarter of an
acre day. which is counted days
work. Wheat is harvested there in
May and barley month earlier. They
cut it with sickle, and if not they pull
it up by the roots, and then sheaf and
shock it much rs we do until it goes
through the sweating process. They
haul it TO the threshing floors on the
queerest looking carts you ever saw.
They have two solid wooden wheels,
with four iron rings fixed in staples
on the outside of each wheel, which
rattle against the wheels as they roll
and make tremendous racket. In
this way the boss can tell when the
hands are at work and when they are
laying off. THE wheels ofthese wagons
are fastened tight upon the aNletree
which turns around as the wheel does.