ABSTRACT
The normal method of classifying land is by determining categories of agricultural and non-agricultural land. The area for woodlands is situated in the districts with an annual rainfall exceeding 350 millimetres. The woodlands can be extended at the expense of the pasture land. The restricted cultivable area has naturally influenced the size of the farm-unit, and the area of land placed at the disposal of each agricultural family. Arab smallholders occupied only a few dunams of land, medium peasants some dozens of dunams and, at very most, 100–150 dunams. The general tendency, accordingly, is in the direction of a decrease in the unit of land, concurrent with an increase in the farming population and in the area under irrigation. The substantial increase in the unit of land cultivated upon a temporary basis in 1952 was the result of such arrangements reached between a large number of settlements and the various agricultural and settlement authorities.
