WHOEVER goes from Gaza to Beersheba sees something that cannot be seen a second time in any part of Palestine: endless stretches of plain, without mountains, without hills, without towns, without trees, without springs,— without the slightest variety in the landscape—and still a wonderfully blessed strip of land.
Here are raised the cereals that Gaza exports. A district of about two million dunam of land is almost one great field of grain that regularly yields crops which can hardly be excelled in the best of cultivated soils. And still neither fertilization nor modern machinery is known here, and still there is no dense population here, such as may serve as an explanation of good yields. No steam plow, no horse or oxen draw the plowshare here—only one little donkey cuts ten centimeters into sod with an incredibly primitive point fastened to a wooden frame. The whole machine costs less than three francs. But the soil is so loose and holds the moisture of rains and dew so well that a harvest is obtained such as is elsewhere obtainable only under exceptionally good conditions and under the application of all possible modern science and technique, which is just as strange to the Bedouin of to-day as it was once upon a time, to our Father Abraham, who likewise was a husbandman in this locality.
The looseness of the soil explains too, how the Bedouin Sheikhs, with the slight labor at their disposal, are able to plow such flat land. At the harvest, it is true, and at the threshing they are helped by the Arabs from El-Arish, who come here during the summer in thousands with their cattle.
The city of Beersheba is still very young.But even now it is of growing importance.Eight years ago a Government stationwas established there, Beersheba was madethe home of a Kaimakam (Sous Souver-
neur) to whom the district with its 70,000 Bedouins was made subject, some soldiery was sent, and a large beautiful government building, (Serail) was erected together with barracks. Three years after the founding of this government-seat there were only three houses, including a Jewish grist-mill. Since that time great efforts were made to improve the place and it is now in a flourishing state of development.
At present Beersheba unmbers one hundred well-built stone houses, with approximately 800 inhabitants. Numerous shops are making the place the chief market of the Bedouins of the district. The city building lots, which the Government has been selling and is still selling at 10 So (Turkish Lira—18.36 Marks) a dunam, can not any longer be obtained in the built-up localities at seven times the price for individuals. A rented dwelling costs about 150 francs a year for two small rooms; a little shop of 3x4 meters floor space rents at 120 francs a year.
Such high prices for so remote a place point to unusual conditions, and such has the Government actually created here! We hardly believed our eyes when we saw really up-to-date waterworks in process of erection, which moreover have been completed and serve their purpose well. More remarkable still is the fact that for these water-works the old well of Abraham is being exploited. Over the old well we found a new stone building with a petroleum motor and a corn mill next to it. The motor pumps the water through a pipe about 800 meters long into the reservoir near Serail, some 20 meters higher. When the reservoir is filled, the pressure of the water distributes it through the two main streets of the city and in this way every house can have its wants supplied from the water works. Early in the morning, after the motor has pumped all the water needed during the day