To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (5335 ) 9/30/2001 2:14:48 AM From: Thomas M. Read Replies (2) | Respond to What are you talking about? My link covered the 19th century extensively. Go back and reread it. Palestinians were extremely successful farmers, well before the arrival of the Zionists.It was the Palestinians who expanded agricultural production and sustainable and environmentally appropriate techniques during the 18th and 19th centuries before the arrival of European Jewish settlers. The success of Palestinian agrigulture is best illustrated by olive horticulture in central Palestine, which constituted the basis of the region's productive economy in the 18th century (see Beshara Doumani's book, Rediscovering Palestine). Cooking oil, lamp oil, soaps and other products derived from Palestinian olive trees enriched many areas during this period, particularly that of Nablus. In 1886, the American consul in Jerusalem, Henry Gillman, called attention to the excellent quality and superior grafting techniques of Palestinian citrus farmers. "I am particular in giving the details of this simple method of propagating this valuable fruit [the Jaffa orange] as I believe it might be adopted with advantage in Florida" (US Government Documents of the Jerusalem Consulate (Gillman to Porter), 16 December 1886."the fields would do credit to British farming" "Palestine produced a relatively large agricultural surplus which was marketed in neighboring countries," and to Europe
