ABSTRACT
This degree of attention recognises the basic importance of agriculture to Syria. Agricultural development is the theme of the present chapter. A large proportion of the increased output from agriculture during the 1950s and 1960s resulted from the steady advance of cultivation into areas long unused for arable farming. It was the continuation of a process set in train during the early nineteenth century, but the pattern of advance was closely influenced by physical conditions, especially the characteristics of precipitation. Western commentators in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century constantly drew attention to the number of ruined villages to be seen in what is now Syria. The recolonization of the Jebel ed Druz was somewhat different. During the eighteenth century much of the Jebel Hauran, as it was known, was exposed to nomadic raiding and many villages had been abandoned. The cereals exported principally represented the landlords' share of the normal crop, although it was marketed by merchants.
