The Rural Voice, 2002-12, Page 20Santa's
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16 THE RURAL VOICE
almost boundless corn and pasture
lands. On the west of the river were
terraced hills covered with olives and
vines.
A letter from a traveller of the
second century BC describes
different parts of Palestine at the
time. The highlands of Samaria had
large plantations of olive trees, as
well as wheat, barley and other
cereals and there was an abundance
of wine, dates and other fruit, the
traveller is quoted in
JewishEncyclopedia.com. Meanwhile
Galilee is described as "exceedingly
fertile, full of plantations of trees of
all sorts, no part of it Tying idle; its
many villages full of people owing to
the richness of the soil."
Palestine's bounty was due to the
natural rains it received. Unlike
Egypt where crops were totally
dependent on water from the Nile
River, Israel was blessed with fall
rains that began in mid-November,
which softened the ground allowing
it to be worked up for planting,
followed by heavier rains in winter
and finally by spring showers.
Pulse crops like beans and lentils
were the first crop planted in early
October. Barley followed a few days
later, and wheat last of all. The land
was so fertile that there was a surplus
of grain that could be exported in
considerable quantities. Barley was
used for breadmaking mostly for the
poorer people and for animal feed.
Spelt was customarily sown on the
borders of fields. There was little oats
grown but millet, beans and lentils
were widely cultivated. Some flax
and possibly cotton were also grown.
It's hard for us to imagine now but
apparently some of the fields had to
be cleared of timber to allow crops to
be grown. Implements used for
planting crops included the plow, a
hoe or mattock and a harrow of some
sort.
The plow was usually made of
oak, sometimes tipped with iron at
the point. It was constructed in the
simplest and lightest way because it
was usually carried to and from the
fields on a man's shoulder. The plow
would be pulled by a team of oxen,
cows or asses.
If there were clods of earth in clay
soil, a mattock or hoe would be used
to break them up. Further smoothing
was done by harrowing, probably
with a thorn bush.