Die Welt

[Logo: A Star of David containing a map showing "Asia Minor", "Palestine", and "Jerusalem"]

Editorial Office and Administration: VIENNA IX., Türkenstrasse No. 9. Telephone 14199.

Appears every Friday. Communications are to be addressed not to individual persons, but to the Editorial Office or the Administration: Vienna, IX., Türkenstrasse No. 9. Unstamped letters are not accepted, and manuscripts are not returned. Editorial hours: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, from 3 to 4 o'clock.

Rates for advertisements: the four-column petit line, 20 Heller. The advertisement section closes Tuesday evening. Single numbers 30 Heller.

Subscription rates: Austria-Hungary: 12 Kronen yearly, 6 Kronen half-yearly. For abroad: Germany 13 Mk. 70 Pf. yearly, 6 Mk. 85 Pf. half-yearly; England 14 shg. yearly, 7 shg. half-yearly; Russia 7 R. yearly, 3 R. 50 kop. half-yearly; Switzerland, France, Italy, Turkey, Roumania, Bulgaria, Servia, Greece, Egypt 17 frcs. yearly, 8 frcs. 50 cts. half-yearly; America 3 doll. 40 ct. yearly.

No. 27. Vienna, 5 July 1901. Fifth Year

We beg that expired subscriptions be renewed in good time, so that no interruption may occur in delivery. In Warsaw we no longer have an agency; we therefore beg our fellow-adherents to apply for everything directly to us.

On the Founding of a Plantation Joint-Stock Company in Palestine. (Orange, Almond and Olive Plantations.) By Dr. S. Jofé and Dr. S. Soskin.

Some three months ago, in our article "On the Present Situation in Palestine" (see "Die Welt" Nos. 10 and 11), we brought forward, among various proposals for the betterment of the condition of our labourers in Palestine, one for the founding of a joint-stock company for plantations. The proposal was taken up by a part of the Jewish press, among others several times in the "Hamelitz", most recently in No. 80, and was most warmly recommended to the public. The address of one of us was even given for the purpose of applications to the company. Unhappily we must here announce that the matter has not for the present advanced so far: that no one has yet proceeded to the founding of a company. This time, however, we mean to dwell somewhat longer upon the project.

In the articles mentioned above we already presented the proposal as entirely timely, and pointed to the procedure of the Germans in their colonial territories as an example. The German plantation companies multiply from year to year, and they are by no means only undertakings with large capitals exceeding the height of a million marks. We can here cite, with the help of the "Colonial Trade Directory" for 1901, several companies which operate with comparatively small sums. First to be named in German East Africa are: the "Deutsche Agaven-Gesellschaft", founded 1900 in Berlin, capital 400 000 Mk., plantations of sisal agaves at Budschirihof; the "Gummi-Handels- und Plantagen-Gesellschaft", founded 1898 in Berlin, capital 150000 Mk.; "Kilimanjaro Handels- und Landwirtschafts-Gesellschaft m. b. H.", founded 1898 in Berlin, capital 462 500 Mk.; the "Sigi-Pflanzungs-Gesellschaft", founded 1897 in Essen on the Ruhr, capital 500 000 Mk., plantations of Arabian coffee at Mkolo, West Usambora; the "Irangi-Gesellschaft", Nobelhof, founded 1896 in Hamburg, capital 136 800 Mk. In the Cameroons are to be mentioned: the Pflanzungs-Gesellschaft "Soppo" G. m. b. H., Berlin 1898, capital 400 000 Mk., cacao and coffee plantations at Soppo; the Pflanzungs-Gesellschaft "Lisoxa", Berlin 1899, capital 500 000 Mk., cacao and rubber plantations at Ikokote. Likewise we see the plantation "Kpeme", G. m. b. H., capital 480 000 Mk. in Togno; the "Domaraland-Form-Gesellschaft" m. b. H., capital 87 000 Mk. at Okakango, German South-West Africa, and many others. We have here cited only a part of those companies which operate with a small capital below a million marks.

In our above-mentioned articles in the "Welt" we had proposed a company with a capital of 100 000 frcs., which was to be raised by the emission of 500 shares at 200 fr. We believe that at the outset we shall sooner reach the goal, that is, the creation of a first plantation company, with a comparatively small capital. In the event of an enlargement of the company's sphere of action, a further 500 shares at 200 frcs. might then be issued in about two years; the capital would thus be doubled. In general outline we conceive the project of the company as follows: In the neighbourhood of one of the existing colonies about 500 Dulam of soil are acquired. In the first year the necessary measures are already taken for the preparation of an orange plantation of 500 Dulam (about 9 ha.), which is to be called into life in the second year. In the first working year wells, basins and canals are made ready for this orange plantation, and a motor together with water-lifting gear (be it pump, be it Noria) is procured for purposes of irrigation. A large nursery is to furnish us the planting material — orange, almond and olive trees. In the second year, then, the 100 Dulam are planted with about 10 000 orange trees; at the same time a further 100 Dulam of soil are made ready for the first almond plantation, and the nursery is further tended, so as to furnish us further material for planting. In the third year the orange plantation is budded (possibly a great part of the trees will already be budded in the nursery, so that budding on the spot becomes superfluous), the first almond planta-