The report made by Sir John Russell, F.R.S., Director of the Rothamstead Experimental Station, on his visit to Palestine in April, 1928, has just been published here by the Zionist Organization, with the authority of the Empire Marketing Board. Sir John’s report on his previous visit to Palestine in April, 1927 was published in that year by the Zionist Organization under the title “Palestine and the Empire Marketing Board.”
“The purpose of this visit,” Sir John writes, “was to ascertain what soil investigations would be necessary in connection with the calf-rearing experiments to insure the economical production of fodder crops essential for a stable dairy or livestock industry in Palestine. Futher I endeavored to form some opinion as to the extent to which fodder crops would be important in the scheme of Palestine husbandry in view of the great extension now taking place in the cultivation of fruit, and especially citrus fruit. This second visit has confirmed me in the opinion I gained last year that wherever the conditions are suitable, the best line of development for the Jewish colonists will probably be fruit products and vegetables of special quality or earliness, distinctively marketed, since this gives the colonists the high prices necessary to maintain the close settlements at which they are aiming, besides furnishing scope for their power of organized buying and selling.
“The Jewish organizations,” Sir John concludes, “that have fostered the colonization in Palestine can congratulate themselves on having re-established their people on the plains and valleys of Palestine. As the result of their efforts, the land has been reclaimed and improved and methods have been devised and are constantly being improved for cultivating it to the best advantage. All this has been done with the minimum of suffering to the colonists and their children, and in consequence a race of young people is springing up inspired by the high purpose of making a Hebrew nation that shall be free from the ills of the lands from where they came.”
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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.
