British Mandate: A Survey of Palestine: Volume I - Page 278

CHAPTER VIII.

case of farms of 81 to 120 dunums, while the average for all farms is 10 fragments.

120. The evils of fragmentation are increased by the dispersion of fragments. The extent of this is indicated very clearly in a sketch of one of the villages studied which is published in the General Monthly Bulletin of Currant Statistics for December, 194~. In this sketch the dispersion of the holdings of 3 selected owners are shown by means of symbols. In these circumstances the mode of cultivation which is imposed on the fellah involves an extravagant use of land. In the exploitation of his scattered holding he is excluded from the advantages of mechanization and irrigation (even if water is available) while his freedom to use his land for plantations is seriously restricted. The economic exploitation of each fragment of holding is further impaired where co-ownership exists. It will be seen from table 4 that the average number of co-owners per parcel is three. There is little doubt that the existence of co-ownership hinders the proper development and utilization of the land. The division of ownership tends to destroy the incentive to improve the land.

121. The abnormal supply situation produced by the war and uncertainty as to the economic has is of much recent development makes a re-computation of formulas impracticable at this stage. The crude estimates of the area constituting a lot viable in any given category of land can be used, however, only as an index of primary application in assessing the question of congestion. They are naturally subject to running adjustment according to the extent to which the keeping of livestock is associated with cultivation as primary or secondary source of income. They are also subject to adjustment in relation to the development in agricultural centres of means of supplementing agricultural production by the development of other activities - local industries, for example, or accommodation for the holiday traffic. In other words, the "trial and error" method of assessing either the lot viable or the cultivable area which was sponsored by the Royal Commission forms the only satisfactory has is for firm conclusions. The two matters are not in such relations as to bring about the condition that a substantial change in one necessarily means a corresponding change in the other and a consequential increase in the agricultural population. The question of markets is of course here of fundamental importance. As the Partition Commission wrote (chapter VIII, page 1301 : "There is one other matter ..... which is relevant to all irrigation and land development schemes whether in the Jordan Valley or elsewhere in Palestine. It is the question of markets for the crops produced. If the rate charged for the water is sufficiently low to permit of holdings being devoted

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