Page 403 - 3 Persian Trade rep KUWAIT 1_Neat

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Domestic Animals.
The most valuable domestic animals are camels, of which there are large
numbers, sheep, goats and donkeys; of the latter many of a large white breed
originally from ITasa, arc found iu the town; these are sometimes ovor thirteen
hands in height, and a good one will sometimes fetch over £15. There are
albO some homed cattle and horses.

Agriculture.
Neither Kuwait nor its environs can boast of any agricultural resources.
There arc no date plantations, no fields, and not many kitchon gardens. A few
small villages to the south-east of Kuwait supply a limited quantity of
vegetables and melons. The chief agricultural centre in the principality is
Jahrah. The staple crops are wheat, barley and lucern, hut musk-mclons,
water-melons, pumpkins, beans and some other vegetables are also grown,
and there are somo 2,500 date trees. The abo^e crops arc mostly irrigated,
but a small amount of wheat and barley is grown by rainfall alone. The
agriculture of Jahrah might be considerably increased if more money were
sunk in it. The next most important agricultural centre is the island of
Failakah where wheat and barley are grown with some success on the clayey
patches, also lucern, melons and some vegetables. There are some date trees
towards the south of the island, but they are net in a nourishing condition, and
the agriculture of the island is generally inferior to that of Jahrah. Except
in the island of Failakah, less cultivation was done than usual, owing to the
unsettled state of the country, and the village of Jahrah was entirely evacuated
for several weeks in the autumn.

Rainfall.
The total rainfall during the year was 3T4s inches and was distributed as
follows :—
November 1921 1*86*'
December 1921 *5 b'
January 1922 •07*'
February 1922 •08*'
March 1922 •58*’

Public Health.
The diseases generally prevalent in the town were those of the digestive
system, granular conjunctivitis and tuberculosis, owing to insanitary habits of
the people and defective housing.
Measles, small-pox and whooping cough were in epidemic form almost
throughout the year and accounted for a very high infantile mortality. Except
in the case of a limited quantity of vaccine lymph obtained from Basrah,
vaccination did not prove satisfactory, as, owing to the distance from India,
lymph proved to he inert.
Quarantine was enforced against all arrivals from Basrah and Muham-
merah from the first week in June to the second week of August, owing to those
ports being declared plague infected. The arrangements worked satisfactorily.

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