1934
J. Elazari – Volcani
(Issac Vilkanski)
SYSTEMATIC AGRICULTURAL
COLONIZATION IN PALESTINE
REPORT PRESENTED AT THE XVIIITH ZIONIST CONGRESS
PRAGUE, 1933
Special Printing from the Protocol
of the XVIIIth Zionist Congress
1934
Published by the Zionist Central Bureau
77 Great Russell Street, London W.C. 1
The complete protocol of the XVIIIth Zionist Congress together with the protocol of the third meeting of the Council of the Jewish Agency appears as a simultaneous publication from the Zionist Central Bureau, London and from the Fiba Publishing House, Vienna, VI., Gumpendorferstraße 10.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
The limiting production factors . . . . . . . . . .
Aspects and prospects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The accounts of the individual and the accounts of
the nation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A look in the future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A view of the present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
National market and world markets . . . . . . . . .
A secure and valuable agriculture . . . . . . . . .
The natural citrus zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The intensive “Mosaic Economies” in their natural
zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Extensive transition economies in their natural
zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The natural “Pioneer ” zone . . . . . . . . . . .
The preparation of collective lands as complete
economic units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The possibility of changing easily perishable
fruits into fruits that do not perish easily .
Providing construction tools. . . . . . . . . . . .
Providing construction materials. . . . . . . . . .
Finding architects and carpenters for construction
projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Establishing an agricultural institute. . .
An expert will find it difficult to address this conference on agricultural colonization. The first principle in the chain of its foundation is based on a branching technology. Without this, the report stands there empty. However, if he is armed with this technology and acts with its help, then he risks the danger that the lecture hall will empty in a few minutes. If he chooses the middle road and makes a compromise, then knowledge will have no weight and the professional distance will not diminish. Therefore, no other choice remains except to withhold the technical reasons for the time being and to share the deeply-rooted laws.
THE LIMITING PRODUCTION FACTORS
The agriculture is tested according to the complexity of its “limiting production factors.” In the same way that the temperature affects the thermometer and the voltage affects the voltage meter, the limiting production factors serve as a measuring device in agriculture. The primitive industry is, in a crucial way, vulnerable to the powers of nature and has very little dependence on human beings. Modern agricultural makes every effort to escape from the boundaries of these natural forces in order to establish complete rule on earth. In spite of this, there is not way to get away from the limiting production factors. We do not have complete control over the climatic relationships, the soil type, or even over the disposition of the human beings who work the land. A long road of suffering stands between the sowing and the harvest. The path between the warehouse of the producer and the table of the consumer is long and winding. And the competition for the products during the fight for the world market are inversely related to the factors that limit their production. Agriculture is not a botanical garden, in which growth factors along are sufficient. One can even get the North Pole to produce citrus fruits through artificial means, fruits that are pretty to look at and even taste good. However, the market price is determined by fruits, that have been grown naturally and not in greenhouses. With regard to the limiting production factors, there is sharp contrast between the present and the future, between the aspects and the prospects, and the interpretation varies in individual economies and in national economies.
ASPECTS AND PROSPECTS
There are very few countries, in which the difference between the potential and the actual possibilities are as large as they are in Erez Israel. Powerful forces slumber in the inner parts of the earth. However, the powers that can be seen on the surface are limited for the time being. And in the transition from the present to the future, from the hidden to the apparent possibilities, several opinions collide and derail the best thinkers. Those who see only red observe the present from the perspective of a future that promises much. Those who see black observe the future with the limited possibilities of the present in mind. Each view is entitled to exist and each view is necessary, if it appears at the right time and at the right place. One concerns itself with building a nation, the other desires to bring order to the individual, to bring help quickly. The eyes of the whole movement are directed toward the future. The colonizer, who has to present plans, is bound to the present reality and must take the existing possibilities into consideration. The settlers of the future will live on the many fruits of the future. The settler of the present, who needs daily bread, cannot live off of prospects but only of aspects.
THE ACCOUNTS OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE ACCOUNTS OF THE NATION
Between the economics of the individual and the political economy, there are various interpretations with regard to standards for time and place. The political economy speaks always about the “unit of ten thousand” over against the individual unit or, at best, the unit of a hundred, with which the individual has to take account of. The breath of the individual is short, measured by the length of a day. The political economy is full of breath and can last a quarter century. The amateur who grows a few vegetables and a little bit of fruit looks at the whole world from his garden. The farmer, who is successful when he adds some cows or a few Dunam of fruit trees to his industry, is inclined to suggest that this attempt is a tested remedy against every economic disaster. The colonizer, however, cannot use an individual recipe as a remedy for the many. He automatically calculates in his mind the 3,000 liter milk, the production of a cow; and the 150 eggs, the production of a hen. he calculates these around the thousand factors, and the market seems to him or her to be fully inundated, without every further possibility of exceptions, even when the market has barred foreign grain through skyrocketing taxes.
A LOOK IN THE FUTURE
The appearance of the land at the end of all the days is presented in the vision of the prophets: “The plowman will overtake the reaper; he who treads the grapes will follow the one who sows the fruit of the vineyard. The mountains gush with juice and the hills drip with abundance.” This is the vision of the population explosion and the uninterrupted harvest. The prophet of such population explosions, Amos, was the owner of sheep and the dresser of sycamores, an expert in agriculture. His vision becomes reality not through miracles but through natural means. The wisdom of humans, their largest energy, the fire of their belief, their love, their power and strength and their fortune will change the face of the earth and change the solitary into gardens of pleasure. Even those who are initiated into the mysteries of the land are sometimes surprised when the mysteries of the land open their hearts to them during their work and their research. “A land that flows with milk and honey” seems to many to be an exaggerated phrase, since they believe that the people of the Orient used exaggerated or that the expressions of the people who wandered in the wilderness were very limited. But the vision of today will become reality tomorrow. The small land is able to feed a million cows instead of the 60,000 that live there today. And the agriculture in an area of hard land that today produces around 2 million pounds is able to bring 25 million, when we change the corn into meat and milk according to the design of our fully mixed industry. The 100,000 Dunam, which previously were full of flowers (Lupinen??) and barley, and now have become citrus fruits, have brought the most productive harvests at a value of 30,000 pounds. And many sources of nourishment will strengthen their production following the course of the research period. The day is not far, when the working person in various zones will be able to ensure survival with 10 Dunam much better than can be done today with 150 Dunam. And what the scientists are achieving through research in decades, could not have been reached through tradition in centuries. However, even the revolution in agriculture follows the path of evolution. Agriculture did not invent airplanes nor did it discover radio. It is grown organically and the shortest day in the area of agriculture cannot last less than ten years.
A LOOK AT THE PRESENT
These principles exist in a colonization project in great measures. Lands can only be considered suitable for colonization, which can produce products that from a technical viewpoint as well as the viewpoint of their quality and quantity of their harvest have already survived the test period and that are ensured from a commercial viewpoint of bringing profits on the world market. In the light of these principles, we must test the various branches that exist in the land, so that we can distinguish between the possible and the impossible.
Self-preserving economies today are to be based on two opposing foundations, that of citrus fruits and that of corn bread. The citrus fruits establish the form of the intensive industry, wheat the extensive. Each one presents a unified industry in its own way. One is demonstrated through the size of the income per Dunam, the other achieves power through the possibilities of expanding the economic unit to over 500 Dunam, in order to help the working person reach an independent standard of life, since one person with the help of machines can work even 1,000 Dunam. The remaining branches of agriculture in part have not yet lasted the test period from a technical viewpoint, some do not have a receptive market, or cannot be pursued at the same time as both of these others.
For the individual who only pays the bills, several fruits that have a reasonable amount of success can be used as sources of nourishment since he can sell them at the local market. For the colonizer, however, whose unit is “Ten Thousand”, such unreliable nourishment sources cannot be viewed as the foundation of colonization. In many zones, which have a long future ahead of them, there is not, for the time being, one single source of existence. He must observe the whole land as one industry, in which one source supplement the other without damaging it. The hard land, with which we have achieved great success in the last ten years through feed and vegetable crops and which is able to support a large number of livestock and poultry, cannot yet make its products competitive, in order to bring them to the world market. The water that will be discovered will bring the solution closer, but this has not happened yet. And the spirit of the colonizer must be closely connected with the land and the markets and not only hover at the surface of the water, as if we were fish that can only live in water.
NATIONAL MARKET AND WORLD MARKETS
In the course of the last ten years, we have reached one the greatest achievements in our political economy. We have built the mixed industry in its present construction. The Emek with its hundreds of JNF trades and industries on National Fund land supplies milk, eggs, vegetables and various fruits to the Jewish Jischuv in the country. A modern industry made up of 100 Dunam of unirrigated land is able to provide twenty families with milk, six families with eggs, three with poultry, two with vegetables, and four with various fruits. Its capacity is still greater. The existing industries are able to produce 20 million liters of milk to sale without large investment funds. However, there is no hope that in the near future the populations of the cities will amount to twenty times or even only five times the population in the country. Therefore, we have been directed to foreign markets.
The production power of our industries in all zones of the land is several times greater than the receptiveness of the national market, and this is a “limited production factor” in our existing national economy. Dairy countries such as Switzerland, Holland, and Denmark still have a strong national market for their production, they export 32% abroad, which is 68% and 62% of their entire production. The United States, whose citrus production in the year 1932 is estimated at 55 million cases, only 6 1/2 cases were exported. In the national market, a qualified farmer has many advantages. There are “over ten thousand” who pay good money not only for quality but also for form. We do not even have “over one hundred”. At the most “over a dozen” and these cannot be the foundation for colonization. We are very dependent on price fluctuations and are not able to step out of the shaking even for a deep breath.
A SECURE AND VALUABLE POLITICAL ECONOMY
In volcano zones, one is in the habit of strengthening buildings with materials that protect against shocks. With special energy and through a particular construction system, we must set up our political economy from the beginning of its existence on. The modern industry differs in its character and in its construction from industry in undeveloping countries and is subject to special laws. Our political economy is, from the founding of its structure, surrounded by another broad political economy, which determines its laws and forces itself upon those near it. Our economy will not survive with its insignificant size and its isolated location. If we want to survive, we have to be alert so that we will not remain insignificant.
We are never allowed, not even in the near future, to renounce the worst land and the most severe climates in the country. We must harden wind-blown sand, bring layers of land to the stark cliffs, direct the water, that makes swamps, into straight paths and store up that which flows unused into the sea. The largest investments cannot scare us away. Our financial politics has to be, in such cases, like the politics during reconstruction after war. When France begin to restore the destroyed buildings, they did not calculate whether the investments, which in restoration projects are connected with hectares, were in agreement with the present market prices. A pile of earth is worth its weight in gold. The huge investment sums were entered in the accounts of the national defense as a direct consequence of the war. The burden was not put on the farmer. he was not given a skeleton, but restored land that is capable of producing good harvests. The land was given to him or her at the market price, but at the cost of the reconstruction. Even we, those who have returned to Zion, must take care of the destruction that occurred since our wars with the Romans.
That is the industry of a somewhat later time, after we have gained strength and have our bases have been ensured. However, there is a difference in our national economy, in the foundation that must be developed today and tomorrow. We must proceed very strictly in our choice of positions and the selection of the first materials. We must only take those economic positions that have a minimum of limiting production factors. It is not good enough for us to have a political economy that supports itself and is not dependent on outside help, it must also have a load capacity so that it can also carry others on its shoulders.
A political economy is composed of individual economies, and the chain rips at the weakest link. Therefore, economies should not be put together like electric batteries, which get their light from outside sources, and when the individual source fails, the power is lost and the light fails. It is better to have a little, but bound through inseparable contact with the first power source.
A secure economy, competitive with its products, can only be that, when there is a minimum of limiting production factors: with regard to all production factors – climate, land type, nature, and education of the working people. Only the economy that exists in its natural zones will be a competitive economy.
The direct consequence is: With regard to the selection of settlement zones and economy types, a sequence must be established that determines what comes earlier and what follows.
By the selection of zones, the coastal zones should be first priority, valleys above the water level the second, valleys under the water level as third, and lastly, mountain ranges. The highest place is, in this case, the last, and the deepest is next to last.
The production factors that determine and decide the competitiveness of the land production are the following: a mild climate, a land suitable for tilling, development is not suspended due to irrigation, water, which is useful based on its salt content, and above all monopolizing fruits.
By the selection of industry types: the citrus fruits, the intensive “mosaic industries”, the extensive renovation industries. Each type of industry must keep its natural zones.
THE NATURAL CITRUS ZONES
The areas for citrus plantations increase from year to year and their influence on our economic consciousness decreases. The extremes want to stop further plantations completely, the moderates – limited decreases. Even here there are various differences in interpretation between the individual who judges the citrus fruits in and of themselves, and the colonizer who tests the issue analytically by comparing the condition of citrus fruits with the condition of other fruits on the world market.
The entire agriculture is experiencing a difficult crisis. Even the small settlers who survive on self-employment have been touched. This is true also for the model farmer. In the most modern industries, the farmer does not gain as much as the wage-worker receives. The appearance of the “scissors” is a concentrated symbol for the crisis. The balance between the prices for production materials and other tools that the farmer has to buy and the prices for the land products that the farmer brings to the market in row or processed form has been impaired. The incongruity between the prices that the consumer pays and those that he receives for his work has increased. Production surpluses have accumulated as left-overs from the war or as a consequence of rationalization and mechanization. The shortage of consumption compared with the surplus of production has also brought as a consequence the change of the taste, the fashion, and the status. Because of the attempt to keep the body free of fat, one has begun to enjoy fewer wheat products and more fruits, which are good for keeping the body thin.
The citrus production has not only emerged unscathed from the world crisis, it has even increased its power. The cut of the “scissors” has not damaged this industry. Along with the increase in the investment sums, the price of fruit has increased. As an example we can compare a mixed economy in the land, which is based on wage workers, and an orange garden. If we take the base of the investment sums for the above-mentioned mixed economy to be the number 100 in the year 1913, in 1926 it rose to 199 and in 1930 136. Compared with the increase in investments, the profit has fluctuated. If we take the base to be 100 in 1913, the profit in 1926 was 501 and in 1930 114. The picture with regard to the citrus plantation is different. The investment capital totals in the above-mentioned three years the sequence of 100,245,164 and the profit has been steadily increasing from 100 to 144 to 167.
No agricultural branch can take the place of the citrus plantations, as long as they are found in their natural zones and on natural, soft soil. No fruits, for the time being, are competitive with citrus fruits. They stand at the forefront, because are monopoly fruits according to the nature of the land, the nature of the land that they need and our own nature. Nature put limits on the citrus plant in the world, it grows well between the temperature of 20 and 40 on both sides of the equator. Nature also established the particular season for the citrus fruit differently according to the zones of the North and South Poles. The fruits from Australia, Africa, and South America become ripe in the summer, when there are already a lot of fruits at the market. Our citrus fruit becomes ripe in the winter. Compared with the decrease of the natural zones for citrus fruit, the world population is constantly increases and the buying power grows as a result of the new effort to give fruit a preference in food preparation. The citrus fruit is no longer a luxury fruit. The scientists backs this up with their teaching about vitamins. Even the fashion fights for this fruit because it demands slim lines. Citrus fruits make up 10 million of the 56 million that is spent on fruits in England. The value of fruits consumed is the same as the value of butter consumed, exceeds by 4 million the value of pork consumed, 12 million over the values of grain and meal consumed, 26 million over eggs and poultry consumed and makes up three fourths of the amount spent on beef and mutton.
Fruit is on the increase with food preparation, but the geographic zones in the whole world that are suitable for several kinds of those fruits is larger than the citrus zones. Even in Palestine itself the natural citrus lands are very small, while other plantations and fruit trees can grow on most lands. There are differences in taste, form and preserving capacity between the orange that grows around Gaza (“at the South Pole”) and those that grown near Akko (“at the North Pole”), as well as those that grow between the two poles. For a long time, the apple has been a monopoly in Tirol, Canada, and Oregon, the grape in France and Italy, and the plum in Smyrna. And the citrus fruits have been the preference for a long time among the various kinds of fruit that distinguish themselves in Erez Israel and will still distinguish themselves.
The national mixed economy is for us a question of survival. As a nation we cannot be dependent on one branch no matter how great and secure it is. But the economy of the individual must not be so dispersed against the nature. In the natural citrus zones the economies must take one form. Every replacement is a waste from the viewpoint of the national economy. Even for the purpose of dispersion the income from a Dunam cannot go from 30 to 40 to 10 pounds. The citrus zone is a strong market for selling the products that the farmers of Emek produce in their industries. The exchange and circulation of goods in the national organization works well and is in keeping with the laws.
The entire country is very diverse in its zones and land types. The zone of the mixed economy makes up a much larger area than the citrus zone. We have to look at the whole land as a large farm, and every branch should have its place. We should not attempt to change the natural boundaries. The citrus plantations could also prosper on hard and wavy soil, but because of the increase of the areas for citrus plantations in the whole world and the surplus of production, the market price is determined by the fruits, which is controlled by a minimum of limiting production factors. Those who push the boundaries will not be competitive and will suffer various fluctuations and shocks.
We do not have any power to maintain the natural boundaries. The private capital that turns to agriculture will select the line with the smallest resistance. We have not power over this capital. And even if we had it, it would always be doubtful whether we should use it as a brake. Freedom of choice and freedom of movement are the powers that motivate private initiative. The intervention from above is the intersection of socialism and capitalism. And the smaller countries have to wait for the results of this attempt that is unfolding in countries with unlimited possibilities.
By saying “No” alone we have not had any success. Those who come to limit the citrus plantations share positive plans and point out enterprises that are possible in the citrus area. And the work area is a large one. One needs very large investments to build the industry, enlarge it and strengthen it: Modern warehouses, good trade routes, transportation means, organized means to protect from sickness and injury, preservation industries, by-product industries. If the private capital is collected on the basis of a well-planned consolidation of what already exists, then the plantation will keep itself within its natural boundaries and limits will be placed on wasted speculation with the land. 120,000 Dunam, which is estimated to produce fruit after 5 years, will require an investment sum for warehouses alone of around half-a-million pounds. There is no doubt that we will need to have 200,000 Dunam before we can determine whether our relationship with the citrus plantations is positive or negative.
Not to ignore the citrus with the wave of the hand, but to have a modern organization of the branch using all achievements from science and technology – that is the command of the hour. We must follow the standard of the times and move forwards at all times. Let us be cursed if we stand back during the race of the competing powers! We must fight at the right time against the danger of every residue. The improvement of the fruit, both in its quality and beauty of the form, the organization of exploration and all technical considerations must be taken care of so that the citrus fruits of Palestine do not get shut out of their top place and as fruits of an inferior rank are compared with California, which is increasing from year to year.
THE INTENSIVE “MOSAIC ECONOMIES” IN THEIR NATURAL ZONES
With each new source of life that we begin to develop in our blossoming national economy, we have to approach the final point as the world market but begin with the national market. The national market is not good enough in and of itself as a final goal, since it cannot be the basis of comprehensive colonization. However, as the starting point for the production of a number of industries, it is very valuable “corridor”, in which one can prepare for the “parlor”. The “parlor” is the world market where there are great demands. There, one looks not only at what is on the inside, but at the covering as well. We must learn the art of preparing ornamental fruits of a high quality and a beautiful look before we can introduce them to the whole world. And we should not try to conquer the national market through laws like protective taxes, but through technology and biology. We must be able to compete with the products that are imported to Palestine. The possibility of competition during the period of transfer from the national to the world market will not be given to us through special industries whose products are sold to everybody.
We must promote a smaller type of economy, which brings all of the nutritional necessities to the working families and only brings the surplus to the market.
The main rules that need to be considered for this economy are the following: A small unified land area, fully self-supporting, sale of the surplus, limited investment capital, no mechanics, foundation for selling at the local market. This economy is different from the mixed economy, which is pulled together from its individual branches – a “mosaic economy.”
The advantages of this economy stem from the limitations of investment sums. It costs about £300 in addition to the land by limiting the land area to 12 to 15 Dunam and limiting the necessary money transactions. This means that this economy does not have to flood the market with too many products in order to cover the complex spending that is connected with the mechanics of the thing, etc. The task of this economy must be limited to a minimum and the income serves mainly to take care of the working families. Its peculiarity lies in its independence from the world market and its competitive power, in the ensured income for the settlers three months after their entrance without having to find work in other places until the plantation bears fruit.
In the broad citrus zone there is room for hundreds of industries of this type, especially on the hard land that is suitable for providing the population that depends on the plantation for their survival with food. The reduction of the distance between the producer and the consumer helps to limit the transportation problems and to make the products competitive. This economic form ensures that the working person has a higher standard of living from the start of his settlement than what he could get from wages and opens the possibility for improving his lifestyle. Every colony has many of those day earners. Many have reached the age where they cannot change their status and are destined to have the same 6 to 7 pound monthly income for the rest of their lives. The above-mentioned economy ensures from the beginning on a salary of 80 pounds per year excluding housing.
The sources of income that have been mentioned have already, from a technical viewpoint, have survived the testing stage. The individual parts have not yet been put together to make a unified economy, which is established on the basis of reciprocal influence such as changing fruit and the possibility of adaptation in every season depending on the situation of the local market. The issue of workers is also a lot more complicated than in the existing economic types, since this economy has its own particular and individual peculiarity. The worker needs special education here. The development of this plan has to begin very carefully with a limited number of industries and these should serve as patterns through the imperfections that will be reduced from year to year.
EXTENSIVE TRANSITION ECONOMIES IN THEIR NATURAL ZONES
The intensive economy because of its nature will not happen all at once, but will develop gradually even if we have lots of means. We do not own any tools, with which one can produce high-quality, competitive fruits with one motion. We cannot reach the new market only by calling it, we have to work through one position after the other. The working person can take command of such a collective operation like the intensive economy only after a good education and after theoretical and practical experience. The intensity comes from a fruit that becomes ripe only after a certain waiting period and the fruits never fall from the tree right after it has been planted.
The area of the extensive economies covers almost every hard land, both dry and wet, that comes into our hands for colonization. If we get wet land, colonization does not happen until after several renovation projects, until we can restore its original power. These renovation projects are partly mechanical such as exterminating weeds, taking out rocks, drying up swamps; partly organic such as strengthening the soil content through biological means. Dry land needs preliminary inquires with regard to the use of water after drainage and the creation of irrigation. Without the inquiries, there is a danger in many areas of too much salt. In the best cases then we would have industries rich in water but poor and powerless in their fight for the market.
In all of these areas, there is no other choice expect to build transition industries. These areas will not be given to the permanent settlers but to the worker groups as renovation areas. Such transition industries will be self-sufficient from the beginning on and will produce competitive products since they have a minimum of “limiting production factors”. The renovation systems will have survived a long investigation period, the test stage. The intensity can begin as soon as these areas produce competitive fruits. Temporarily, in a transition period, the economic unit can be limited to 500 to 1000 Dunam. This system is necessary, for the time being, even with regard to areas that are dry. It is better to let the water flow into the sea as long as it is not ready to use, rather than to let it flood our national economy.
THE NATURAL PIONEER ZONE
Erez Israel is not a flat land, but is full of mountains, valleys, and hills. In the same way, the Jewish people do not have plain characteristics but are striving in spirit. Palestine is a land of extremes, in its temperature, in the heights over sea-level, and in the depths under sea-level. So are we also. The diversity is an advantage for the future, since the national economy is more secure if it does not depend on a single branch. In the present, this diversity serves as a “limiting production factor” that weakens in many cases the competitiveness of our products.
Nature and human beings determine the competitiveness of the products. And the agreement of the nature of the human being and the nature of the land without particular restrictions will bring power to our national economy. In the same way that there is a natural zone for citrus fruits and expanding its boundaries artificially presents a danger to its competitive power, nature has also put limits on the pioneer zone. This seems to be a psychological issue, but the colonizer must also know the psychology of the settler just as well as the farmer knows the psychology of plants.
The pioneer zone extends from the valleys and mountains of the land to the swamps and the flat land of the farm – everywhere that is not suitable for citrus plantations. According to the existing situation of agriculture in the whole world, the land gives the worker only bread, but not interest for the capital. Even the model farmer only makes enough to pay the wage workers through his efforts, and often not even that. And in the mountain range, which makes us the largest part of the land and is not suitable for mechanical projects, the Messiah can only come as a poor man on a donkey and not on clouds of step and with electric instruments.
The next two years should be identified as the present, with the next 5 to 10 years being in the future. Cutting or increasing time depends only on us. The near future will not fall on us from heaven, but comes only after preparation, after working out a logically thought-out plan, and after determining what should happen early and late. After the planning and the determinations that we use in our selection of steps for building our national economy, the high rate of speed in the development of the vision will be determined already.
Today important bases are still lacking in the building of our national economy. We have no building foundation, we do not have sufficient construction tools and instruments, and we lack many of the basis materials. We do not have enough construction workers and their helpers, who alone can guarantee the quality of the construction and its steadfastness, and the proportion has not been determined to make such a high rate of speed possible without doubting our actual success.
THE PREPARATION OF COLLECTIVE LANDS AS COMPLETE ECONOMIC UNITS
During the period of the last ten years from 1921 until 1931, a total of nearly 10 million pounds was spend on Jewish agriculture projects. Of this total, around 3 1/2 million was spent for the acquisition of land, for renovation connected with the first land improvements; for drainage and installing water lines, drying up swamps, planting forests, building streets more than 1 million was spent. For agricultural industries around 700,000 pounds was handed out. Participating in these investments were the Zionist Fund, the JNF and the Keren Hejessod with more than 3 million pounds; the Pica(???) gave 2 million for the construction of colonies and agricultural industries, the private capital contributed around 5 million. The number of private contributions for the construction of the agricultural projects was also very large; however, according to its natural tendencies those contributions go more or less for the guaranteed projects and not for unexplored territory.
The national funds, which are made up of sums from individuals, are the ones that have laid the new paths and created an organic national economy on unconnected roads. They have provided the mixed economy, the scientific research, the education and leadership, the sanitary conditions, without which a national economy cannot develop. The mixed economies of the Keren Hajessod number more than 1,600 economic units. They are not large in number but in their nature. The production of animal feed and good vegetables, of full-bred domestic animals, the breeding of hens, the cultivation of various fruit trees – this whole type, which in the quality and quantity of its production increases from year to year, is our original creation. The main significance of these industries stems from the fact that they are the leaders for better mixed economies, they find the way and make it shorter. The new economies can be built from these acquired and tested experiences, and it will not be necessary to follow the long road of suffering and invest the huge amounts that they have cost.
The hand of the Jewish worker would not have been able even with the greatest effort to produce this picture if they were given land areas that were scattered all over the country. The Emek is a collective economic unit and it will have the power in its development to be an independent economy, which provides all of the necessary provisions for itself and for the cities in the country. It is possible to rule the land and make it bring forth many products, but it is much more difficult to become the ruler of the market and the convince people to buy the returns. The organization of the market demands the creation of processes: central in order to admit the fruits, the production of animals and poultry; central for manufacture and for exports. All of these indispensable conditions for the development of a modern agricultural economy, which make the products competitive, are only possible on collective and broad areas of land in large economic units.
THE POSSIBILITY OF CHANGING EASILY PERISHABLE FRUITS INTO
FRUITS THAT DO NOT PERISH EASILY
After the world war, our agricultural projects were connected with attempts to solve all of these issues that have to do with the increase in the quantity of land products and with everything that relates to that. We tried to find ways to get more bread for the people and more feed for the livestock from the land, more milk from the cows and more eggs from the hens, ways to increase the various kinds of plantations products. Today our economic positions have changed: We are concerned more about the issue of improving the quality and with the problem of making the best use of the quantity produced rather than improving the quantity itself.
The industries of the JNF, which number around 1,600 units, are standing on the fence between growing and sitting still. Their survival depends upon the production of meat, milk, and eggs, since their worth is made apparent immediately and one does not have to wait the length of time that one does for the plantations, and since the income is collected daily without having to wait until the harvest at the end of the year. However, it is not possible to increase the production at random, if one does not punctually find places to preserve the products. Milk, that is not sold, is thrown out. The production of butter is not possible without refrigeration; and even if this is available, it must have special preserving capacities.
If we had an organized milk industry, our existing settlements would have already been consolidated and there would be room to provide refrigeration facilities. Milk that was not sold could be organized for part of the immigrants from Germany who do not have enough funds to wait until the plantations produce fruit. According to the present conditions, every industry that has been constructed in irrigated zones and has a minimum of “limiting factors” is , without intending to, undermining the survival of industries in unirrigated zones. It is not necessary to plug up a fountain when the water overflows. It is better to build a deeper fountain next to it so that water can go from one to the other.
The competitiveness of the various products is, in many cases, determined by the possibility of providing a reasonable standard of living in the sum total for the producers. If, for example, this standard of living was measured in a sum of 100 pounds per year, it would be ensured through the production of 10,000 liters of milk at a cost of 2 Grusch for each liter, or with 20,000 liters at a cost of 1 Grusch. The returns, then, stop being competitive only if the necessary increase in the quantity of the production power of the working family exceeds a particular land area. However, if there is no way to preserve the products that come to the market, then even the possibility will be taken away for competing with the outer returns on the inner market.
Milk is not the final goal but the beginning of everything. The production of feed is the natural regulator for every change of fruit in an intensive economy, since it destroys the bridges to illness and injury, which feed off of many plantations that stand next to each other, but to which the feed plantations are immune. They also improve the land and increase its production volume, both originally and through the by-products from the stable dung. Without it the intensity cannot approach every outward possibility to make the products competitive. Even in the citrus region the organic fertilizer has become a burning issue and deportment of livestock has been on the agenda, not connected with the animals themselves but because of the fertilization of citrus plants. In any case, the first step of the Messiah in the zone of the hard land has been examined on the “Milk Street”.
It is the same with the vegetables and the early and late fruits. The market accepts only the early fruits and these only at their highest quality. However the land produces average, and even below-average, fruits even when the growers carefully select the number of seeds. The market has stopped fluctuating in certain times, when it has over-flowed or has even been blocked. And the net profit is made up of the sum total from the quality products and the average harvests. Without an organized preservation industry from the very beginning on, intensive production cannot serve as a reasonable source of acquisition for the markets.
We already began ten years ago to deal with the resolution of the issue of the sugar industry, freely only for the co-op of the country. Around 1,000 families could center their existence around this industry. The future is certain, the present is still surrounded by clouds. We have made it through many test stages that have provided positive results, but the tests have not yet come to a conclusion that ensures the worker, who has to produce the original product for the factory, that he will harvest the fruits with effort. We are in danger of losing this positive prospect.
Even the citrus production cannot find its way without the canning industry. This is also not concerned with the issue of quantity. Finally, the tree is not made of iron, but of wood, and falls if the burden is too heavy.
As the second priority after the improvement of the quality, the issue is how one utilizes the quantities. The danger is with the first fruits of the new plantations, that they might flood the market and bring discredit upon our fruits. With orders we will not be able to escape this danger. One has to approach it with positive healing methods. In the U.S.A., in Australia, and in South America, one makes every effort to change oranges into juice and other forms of preserved goods. In California and Florida “wurden an die 56,000 Extraktoren eingerichtet(??????)”, which deliver cases to 3 million. The same kind of machines were introduced in Australia, South America, and New Zealand.
No farmer will fight for cultivation if he is not guaranteed a warehouse for storing the harvest, and he will not make survival dependent upon the slim chance that he can sell the product from the stalk or in the barn. We, however, cut corners in our national economy without being concerned about preparing the treasury, in which the products can be stored for a period.
The industry itself is not a simple matter. Its products also must stand out in quality and form. The world market is becoming more and more closed everyday through customs barriers. And these barriers cannot be broken with the blowing of the Shofar like the walls of Jericho, but only through monopoly products.
There are two factors that determine the monopoly character of a product: nature and human beings. The Palestinian orange is a product of nature. The butter in Denmark, the cheese in Switzerland and Holland mainly products of the human spirit, in the same way as the clock factories in Switzerland, the dyes in Germany, and the famous fabrics in England. Our national genius should find monopoly products not only from the land of our country, but also from the depth of our talents. “The life of the souls in the breath of our country and the balm in the bouquet” described in the wonderful song of Jehuda Halevi should also be felt in the butter and the cheese, in the wine and the fruit juice, in the honey and the fruits, in flour and in the day-to-day necessities, instead of being limited to lessons, songs, and festivals.
The first products that we bring to the market will decide the fate of our agricultural industry. If they fail during their first appearance, then all is lost. They must be introduced with a cry of especially high quality, without the smallest blemish, unified in taste and form.
Without a special research institute that studies methods for high-quality production and for by-products, we will not reach our goal. The foundation was laid in the chemistry and bacteriology laboratory that was created in the Agricultural Research Station in Rechoboth from the funds of the Israel Sieff endowment and which is run by Chaim Weizmann.
The “preserved wine” (Jajin hameschumar) has promised to bring us the day of the Messiah. The wine can only be a symbol. Our national economy will not be able to base its existence on small beginnings, nor will it achieve its fullest development if we do not make sure, as long as there is still time, that a foundation has been laid for production that is able to change fruit that cannot be preserved into that which can.
PROVIDING CONSTRUCTION TOOLS
When we observe how bridges and ships are built and highways are laid, we already see in our association, without knowing it, the final substance. However, we only see the tools and the initial materials in isolation and not connected with the goal, for which they are used.
We see the danger that exists in our uniform national economy and do nothing to prepare the basis tools and instruments, without which it is impossible to create the multiple sources of support in a national economy. We grumble that our dependence on citrus plantations is too large, or that we do not have this or that agricultural industry source. And no one realizes that the tools needed to create such an industry have not yet been produced, the first pliers, from which all others are made.
There are an infinite number of examples. Here are several: As long as the Mediterranean fruit flies rule the land, find enough nourishment to survive at all times of the year, and endanger the citrus fruit in their flight from fruit to fruit, there is no way to expand the plantations. The cow fever takes part of the competitiveness away from the milk industry as well as certain poultry illnesses. Many things are detrimental to the citrus fruits when they are still in the trees, and damages also come during transport that diminish the original quality and cause observable injury. Without initial chemical studies of the nature of fruit with regard to its nature, quality, relationship to land and to water, there is no canning industry and no by-products worth speaking about, in the same way that construction is impossible without plumbline and water level.
In the eyes of the toughest critic who talks pompously about the expansion of the economy, the person who investigates the case of cow fever will seem to be an odd being who works with abstract knowledge and stumbles from stall to stall collecting calves for research projects. And what is this researcher looking for? Flies and mosquitoes. And whoever directs his research around fungi and mushrooms does not seem to be working with real things at all. However, all of these “loafers” who supposedly work only with theories are the creators of the tools, without which the development of a strong national economy in our day will not occur.
FINDING CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS
Agriculture in its first beginnings was an art that was traditionally passed on from the father to the son. Today it is an art and a science at the same time. And without research one will not move forwards at all. One cannot learn by using analogies from other countries, even from those that have a similar climate. Books of scientific projects that were produced under different conditions cannot show the way. One must always ask the earth itself and wait for a clear answer from it.
But the earth does not give an answer as quickly as something like the telephone. A moment for it lasts a year. And with every year the answer can change, negatively or positively. One can draw conclusions only aver a whole series of years.
The test period with fruit trees lasts even longer. The first success does not necessarily last. Past attempts can serve as warnings for the future. We have a whole cemetery of attempts that “fell on the fields of honor” during our battle for self-preservation. The famous French olives prospered during the first years in Erez Israel. Many other fruit trees also promised success until damages appeared that destroyed them and pulled them “out of the front”.
The well-known advice seems so easy: Take care of the millions of cities with early or late fruits! But the distance between word and action is so far! With the many projects that survive the test, only a few prosper. And of these only one or two survive the means and length of transport until they land on the table of the consumer. It is only worth it to send early potatoes to England, for example, if they arrive there right around Christmas. Whatever comes a week too early or too late loses to the monopoly prices. Long test years were necessary in various kinds of soil and in various parts of the country to be able to find the right kind of land and climate, and one had to work with transportation methods for years. There is no “gentlemen’s agreement” between the pests and the farmers to stop fighting in the first three months before Christmas. They can just as well attack the fruit when the prices are high as they can leave them alone when the prices are low. It is very nice for those who return to Zion to be able to send an original fruit to England for Christmas and to forget the old battle with the fathers, but that cannot happen the other way around. Whoever does not prepare for the Erev Sabbath will not have any meal on the sabbath. And the Erev Sabbath is in this case much longer than the sabbath.
FINDING ARCHITECTS AND CARPENTERS FOR CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
The competition for the world market is like a race. The success of the runner is determined by his talents and a good start. If the first even precedes the second by a moment, he will not succeed, even if his talents are twice as great.
Even it we could start in the big world at the same time as our competitors, it is still hard to complete the long and hard path of competition. However, we have lost decades in order to produce talented and tested runners and to create suitable training methods. And they are: systematic scientific research that shortens the road and limits the distance, using education and methods that bring the successes of research from the laboratories and test lots into the fields and the factories.
The critic also does not understand the connection between the start of a bridge and the preparation of tools and instruments that are necessary for that. Even a university does not fall from heaven, but grows organically. In any case, however, this law is in the realm of biology.
Everything that lives, blooms and prospers in the land is subject to year-long research. And the instruction cannot be based on textbooks that were created underneath other stars in other countries. Ten years of biological research is a short time.
We cannot begin until the first research results have come out. Those who brag with the knowledge that they have called attention to the necessity of beginning with education are equal to those who see how oranges are eaten “zu Chanuka”(???) are proud that they have already made reference to Rosh Hashanna.
Still on the agenda is the
ESTABLISHMENT OF AN AGRICULTURAL INSTITUTE
to last four years: two years of instruction in biology at the university in Jerusalem, two years of agricultural instruction at the research station in Rechoboth. Above all, the budget for the institute must be taken care of. Hundreds of students are learning outside of the country in different conditions and have to start over with many things when they return to the country. Do we not see the connection between a strong national economy and the experienced economists who are required to start it? There is such a special school for the leaders and organizers of important projects in every progressive country who work together with the leaders of the practical agricultural projects. In a short time, the citrus plantations, whether we want it or not, will cover 200,000 Dunam. The call for a stop to the orange plantation is a cry in the desert. By organizing a strong and scientific leadership circle we will ensure our honor. A hundred thousand Dunam of fruit-producing citrus plantations require 1,000 pack workers, 700 carpenters, 4,000 sorters, and 2,000 packers. The work loan needed to take care of these workers for the required time comes to around 283,000 pounds and to that 200,000 pounds must be added for the cost of picking and transporting. But these 7,700 workers are an army of educated workers, on which the increase of the market depends. That is the primary department that has called us to one of our most important agricultural positions. The present day can become a terrible judgment day for us if we only become pompous and do not do anything. However, it can be a great day for us if we are prepared.
For the transportation of the masses there are two possibilities: either in leaky boats, whereby one must use a lot of power to bail out the water that pours into the boat in order to even stay on the bank and keep the movement going. Or we could interrupt the continuity in order to build bridges, with which the powerful masses could be transported. I do not propose that we interrupt the movement, but that we lead it down the uncertain path that we have at the moment and at the same time bring together all the powers for the construction of the royal bridge that will span between all the zones of the country in order to create a strong and independent national economy.