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Grain Farming

Grinding at the Mill

GRINDING OF THE GRAIN BY THE WOMEN The first sound to greet the ear in the early morning in many a Palestinian village will be the sound of the grinding of the grain. Today, as in the long ago, many of these people resort to the handmill for this purpose. A traveler passing by these humble homes will hear the hum of the handmill morning or evening...

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Oxen

ANIMALS USED IN PLOUGHING Use of oxen. In Bible times oxen were used almost exclusively for ploughing. For this reason the expression "a yoke" was used by the Hebrews to mean the measure of land which a yoke of oxen could plough in a day (cf. I Samuel 14:14, and Isaiah 5:10). "Oxen" as the Hebrews used the term, meant both sexes of the animal, cow...

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Tares

Tares. The tares are also enemies of the grain. In his Parable of the Tares, JESUS said: "While men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat" (Matthew 13:25). In the Holy Land, tares are something called "wild wheat," because they resemble wheat, only the grains are black. Thomson has this to say about the tares: "The Arabic name for ...

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Binding Sheaves

Binding the grain into sheaves. The cut grain is gathered on the arms and bound into sheaves. The Psalmist makes a reference to the mower filling his hand, and the binder of sheaves filling his bosom (Psalm 129:7). And the Song of Solomon speaks of an heap of wheat (Song of Solomon 7:2), and Joseph in his dream saw "binding sheaves in the field" (G...

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Growing and Harvesting Grain

THE NUMEROUS REFERENCES to the growth of grain, which are found in the law of Moses, indicate that it was expected that the Israelites would become an agricultural people after entering the land of Canaan, and that the cultivation of grain would become one of their chief industries. It is a remarkable fact that the methods used by them in growing a...

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The Mattock

Use of pickax or mattock. Where the ground is hard, or on the rocky hillside, it is not possible to use the plough. In such places, if the peasant farmer is industrious, he will prepare the soil by using the pickax or mattock. Isaiah speaks of "hills that shall be digged with the mattock" (Isaiah 7:25). By using such an implement, all the available...

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Storing Grain

STORING THE GRAIN Smaller quantities of grain are often stored away for future use by the family, in "barrels" made of a combination of clay and wickerwork. If there is a larger quantity of grain it is sometimes placed in a dry cistern under the ground, and the location of the place is kept a secret by covering over the opening. Actually there wer...

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Ploughing

PREPARING THE SOIL FOR THE CROP Ploughing. The ploughing of the ground in Oriental fashion is quite primitive. The plough, which at best is a slight implement, can be carried if necessary two miles to the farmer's place of work. Of course by comparison with modern ploughs, it could be said merely to scratch the surface at the soil. The ploughman h...

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Fire

Fire. Fire is another enemy of the grain farmer. In Israel, the Arabs let the wheat become dead ripe, and therefore as dry as tinder, before they cut it. Thorns usually grow all around the wheat fields and intermingle with the grain, and thus it would be easy for a fire starting with the thorns to spread to the wheat, and it would be difficult to k...

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Transporting the Grain

Transportation of grain to the threshing floor. The usual method of transporting the grain to the threshing floor is as follows: two large bundles of the grain are made secure by a network of rope and then placed a few feet apart. Then a camel is made to kneel in the space between them, and then the bundles are fastened to the animal's packsaddle. ...

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