Intensive Jewish agricultural development of the Negev, the arid southern district of Palestine which constitutes almost half the country, has been practically ruled out of question by recent scientific investigations.
Field studies and experiments by the leading expert on the soils of Palestine Dr. Adolf Reifenberg of the Hebrew University, show that the underground water, eve in the more promising northern part of the Negev, near Beersheba, is too salty for irrigation, while Government experiments in attempting to dam rain water for the same purpose have shown this method also to be impracticable, because of the enormously high rate of evaporation and seepage, which results in most of the dammed water vanishing early in the dry season.
Furthermore, Dr. Michael Even-Ari, Hebrew University biologist, stated here that the peculiar combination of climatic and soil conditions in the Negev may make irrigation actually dangerous to the fertility of the soil, since it may result in bringing deep-lying salty deposits to the surface and ruining the top-soil. This has actually occurred in some citrus groves in the southern parts of the coastal citrus belt.
In disclosing the result of his investigations, Dr. Reifenberg pointed out that it might have political as well as economic significance. While not entirely ruling out the possibility of Jewish colonization in this region, Dr. Reifenberg said, his research indicated that if it were attempted it would have to be on a much more modest scale than had been proposed.
The one remaining possibility for developing the region, which had not been fully investigated, he said, was the improvement of dry-farming methods. Dr. Reifenberg disclosed that Dr. Walter C. Lowdermilk, director of the Soil Conservation Bureau of the United States Department of Agriculture, who visited Palestine last year had suggested the adoption of the “basin-listing” method of ploughing lately developed in the United States, to make fullest possible use of the Negev’s scanty rainfall.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
