The Fertility of Palestine
AN EXPERT VIEW.
A most valuable contribution on the question whether Palestine can again be made a land flowing with milk and honey, entitled “Die Niederschlagsverhältnisse Palästinas in alter und neuer Zeit,” by Dr. Heinrich Hilderscheide, fills two entire numbers (Nos. 1 and 2) of the Zeitschrift des Deutscher Palästina-Vereins (Leipsic). It gives a wealth of statistical data on the meteorology and climatology of the Holy Land, and then, on the basis of these data, the writer has this to say:
“The question whether Palestine can not again be made as productive a country as it was two thousand years ago can only be answered if the causes are examined that have led to its present degenerated condition. If these lie in permanent changes in the climate, in a decreased average of annual rains, and other factors not under the control of mankind, then it is useless to hope that money or energy will restore the pristine productiveness of the land. If, on the other hand, the causes lie in historical and political changes, chief among which is the mismanagement of the country by the Turkish authorities, then there can be no reasons why such a restoration should not take place. Both of these views have had ardent champions among the specialists, among the advocates of the former view being Hull, Franz, Fischer and Zumoffen, while Condor, Lartet, Ankel and others are equally decided in their defense of the second opinion.
"A candid examination of the facts in the case shows that they are decidedly in favor of this latter position. The former view is really based upon a petitio principii. It is presupposed that there have been radical changes in the climate of Palestine in historic time, and that these changes have been produced by the ruthless destruction of the forests. Now the fact in the case is that we have no proofs whatever that the forests of Palestine were in the Biblical times any more extensive than they are now. We have no evidence from any author of note that there
ever has been such a ruthless destruction of forests. No passage in either the Bible or the Talmud permits us to draw the conclusion that in former times the average of rainfall was any greater than it is at present. Ever since meteorological observations have been scientifically taken in Palestine (and in some cases, as in that of Jerusalem, these go back for decades), the climatic conditions have remained practically the same. In fact, the rain-producing causes, such as the near Mediterranean Sea, are the same as they were in Biblical times.
“ There is accordingly no evidence of history or science to show that the climate of Palestine has changed materially from the time when the land flowed with milk and honey, to the present age when so much of the country is a stony and barren waste. Other causes have been operative, and these have been chiefly direful and destructive political conditions that began as early as the period of the decline of the Roman empire, and have reached their acme in the corrupt Turkish rule of the last four centuries, the oppression of the officials, the management of the taxes, and the like. The people have in the course of time become indifferent to all progress, as progress only signified new oppression. There can be no doubt that this historic land, if put under proper care and correctly managed, can be restored to its former flourishing condition. The ocular proof of this can be seen in the very flourishing condition of the Württemberg Temple colonies, which were established in 1868 near Jerusalem, Sharon and Haifa, and which are veritable garden spots in the land, and that, too, in localities that before the days of these colonies were virtually desert land. The fact that the Jewish agricultural colonies cannot make equally good reports is to be explained partly on the ground of mismanagement and partly because the colonists have not the good-will and enterprise necessary for the work.”’—Literary Digest.