The Jewish calendar (q. v.), as fixed by the three great festivals, turned on the seasons of green, ripe, and fully-gathered produce. Hence, if the season was backward, or, owing to the imperfections of a non-as- tronomical reckoning, seemed to be so. a month was intercalated. This rude system was fondly retained long after mental progress and foreign intercourse placed a correct calendar within their power ; so that notice of a Veadar, i. e. second or intercalated Adar, on account of the lambs being not yet of a paschal size, and the barley not forward enough for the Abib (green sheaf), was sent to the Jews of Babylon and Egypt (Ugol. de Re Rust, v, 22) early in the season. See Time. The year, ordinarily consisting of twelve months, was divided into six agricultural periods, as follows (Mishna, Tosajthta Taanith, ch. i) :
Tisri, latter half,
AGRICULTURE
(1.) SOWING TIME.
fbeginning about au-
107
AGRICULTURE
au- i
tumnal equinox . f EarJy raiQ due_
Kisleu, latter half.
Tebeth.
Sebat, former half.
(2.) UNRII'E TIME.
(3.) COLD SEASON.
Sebat, latter half . .
Adar
[Veadar]
Nisan, former half.
■ Latter rain due.
(■4.) HARVEST TIME.
(Beginning about ver-
J „„i „,.,.;„
I
nal equinox, Uarley een. Passover.
Nisan, latter half
Ijar.
. ... (Wheat ripe.
Sivan, former half ■> cost
Sivan, latter half.
Tammuz.
Ab, former half.
Ab, latter half. Klul.
Tisri, former half.
(G.) SULTRY 8EA30N.
Thus 1
Ingathering of fruits.
six months from mid Tisri to mid Nisan were
were heated with such things as dung and hay (Ezek. iv, 12, 15 ; Mai. iv, 13) ; and, in any case of sacrifice on an emergency, some, as we should think, unusual source of supply is constantly mentioned for the wood (1 Sam. vi, 14 ; 2 Sam. xxiv, 22 ; 1 Kings xix, 21 ; comp. Gen. xxii, 3, 6, 7). All this indicates a non- abundance of timber, and implies that nearly all the arable soil was under culture, or, at least, used for pas- turage. See Forest.
The geological characters of the soil in Palestine have never been satisfactorily stated; but the differ- ent epithets of description which travellers employ, enable us to know that it differs considerably, both in its appearance and character, in different parts of the land ; but wherever soil of any kind exists, even to a very slight depth, it is found to be highly fertile. As parts of Palestine are hilly, and as hills have seldom much depth of soil, the mode of cultivating them in terraces was anciently, and is now much employed. A series of low stone walls, one above another, across the face of the hill, arrest the soil brought down by the rains, and afford a series of levels for the opera- tions of the husbandman. This mode of cultivation is usual in Lebanon, and is not unfrequent in Palestine, where the remains of terraces across the hills, in vari-
mainly occupied with the process of cultivation, and | ous parts of the country, attest the extent to which it the rest with the gathering of the fruits. Rain was was anciently carried. This terrace cultivation has commonly expected soon after the autumnal equinox, , necessarily increased or declined with the population, or mid Tisri; and if by the first of Kisleu none had If the people were so few that the valleys afforded fallen, a fast was proclaimed (Mishna, Taanith, ch. i). sufficient food for them, the more difficult culture of The common Scriptural expressions of the " early" I the hills was neglected ; but when the population was and the " latter rain" (Deut. xi, 14; Jer. v, 24; Hos. too large for the valleys to satisfy with bread, then vi, 3; Zech. x, 1; Jam. v, 7) are scarcely confirmed the hills were laid under cultivation. See Vineyard.
by modern experience, the season of rains being un- broken (Robinson, i, 41, 429 ; iii, 9G), though perhaps the fall is more strongly marked at the beginning and the end of it. The consternation caused by the fail- ure of the former rain is depicted in Joel i, ii ; and this prophet seems to promise that and the latter rain to- gether "in the first month," i. e. Nisan (ii, 23). See Rain.
Its plenty of water from natural sources made Ca- naan a contrast to rainless Egypt (Deut. viii, 7 ; xi, 8--12). Nor was the peculiar Egyptian method of hor-
In such a climate as that of Palestine, water is the great fertilizing agent. The rains of autumn and winter, and the dews of spring, suffice for the ordinary objects of agriculture ; but the ancient inhabitants were able, in some parts, to avert even the aridity which the summer droughts occasioned, and to keep up a garden-like verdure, by means of aqueducts com- municating witli the brooks and rivers (Ps. i, 3; lxv, 10 ; Prov. xxi, 1 ; Isa. xxx, 25 ; xxxii, 2, 20 ; Hos. xii, 11). Hence springs, fountains, and rivulets were as much esteemed b}' husbandmen as by shepherds
ticulture alluded to in Deut. xi, 10 unknown, though (Josh, xv, 19 ; Judg. i, 15). The soil was also clear- less prevalent in Palestine. That peculiarity seems ed of stones, and carefully cultivated ; and its fertility to have consisted in making in the fields square shal- was increased by the ashes to which the dry stubble low beds, like our salt-pans, surrounded by a raised and herbage were occasionally reduced by being burn- border of earth to keep in the water, which was then i ed over the surface of the ground (Prov. xxiv, 31 ; turned from one sqnare to another by pushing aside Isa. vii, 23; xxxii, 13). Dung and, in the neighbor- the mud, to open one and close the next, with the j ho.od of Jerusalem, the blood of animals were also used foot. Robinson, however, describes a different proc- to enrich the soil (2 Kings ix. 37 ; Ps. lxxxiii, 10 ; ess, to which he thinks this passage refers {Res. i, Isa. xxv, 10; Jer. ix, 22 ; Luke xiv, 34, 35). A rabbi 542 ; ii, 351 ; iii, 21), as still in use likewise in Pales- ] limits the quantity to three heaps of ten half-cors, or tine. There irrigation (including under the term all \ about 380 gallons, to each seah (q. v.) of grain, and appliances for making the water available) was as ! wishes the quantity in each heap, rather than their essential as drainage in our region ; and for this the number, to be increased if the field be large (Mishna, large extent of rocky surface, easily excavated for cis- ' Shebiith, iii, 2). Nor was the great usefulness of terns and ducts, was most useful. Even the plain of sheep to the soil unrecognised (jb. 4), though, owing Jericho is watered not by canals from the Jordan, to the general distinctness of the pastoral life, there since the river lies below the land, but by rills con- was less scope for it. See Manure. verging from the mountains. In these features of the That the soil might not be exhausted, it was order- country lay its expansive resources to meet the wants ed that every seventh year should be a sabbath of rest of a multiplying population. The lightness of agri- ! to the land : there was then to be no sowing or reap- cultural labor in the plains set free an abundance of ing, no pruning of vines or olives, no vintage or guth-