ALTNEULAND

Organ of the Zionist Commission for the Exploration of Palestine

PUBLISHED BY

When on the 29th of January of last year I set out upon a two months' journey to the Orient, with Palestine as its principal goal, the occasion of my undertaking was a manifold one.

First of all, I felt within me the lively desire to walk for once upon the hallowed soil of the Promised Land, so rich in historical memories, and now to behold with the bodily eye its holy places, which I had so often beheld in spirit.

Secondly, agricultural and economic interests drew me to the East. I wished, if possible, to visit the home of the noble Arab horse, or at all events its borderland, hoping at the same time to be able to see something of the breeding of the ass, the mule, the camel, and the buffalo. I desired also to inform myself a little concerning the cultivation of southern tree-fruits, among others the culture of the olive and the orange. In the main, however, my concern was to become acquainted with the whole life and doings of the Oriental population, their conditions of existence, and above all their methods of tilling the soil. I had visited so many lands

*) We are in the pleasant position of giving space here to the observations of a man who enjoys an excellent reputation in German agriculture. Oekonomierat Fr. Oetken has become known to the widest circles, among other things, through his descriptions of American agriculture. He must accordingly be regarded as one of the most competent judges of the agricultural conditions of Palestine, which he studied closely on a journey of inquiry. In a special work on the agriculture of Palestine the author will treat the subject at length, whereas in the present essay he touches upon it only briefly. The Editors.