a comparative study of a Roman frontier province. - Historia Antigua

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10. Penrose et al, 1970; Polservice 1980, B-1.
11. Allan 1969,6" Bronson 1982, gives the current rate of usage at
m
600,000,000 per year, with replenishment of only 140,000,000 m3
per year. Hydrologists predict the exhaustion of the supply and a
massive saline intrusion within forty years.
12. De Mathuisieulx 1912,196-200; Franchi 1912.
13. The re-introduction of olives south of the Lesser Syrtes has proved
successful despite initial doubts, Poncet 1963,284.
14. Despois 1935,97-120; Franchetti 1914,433-55; Taylor 1960,88-99;
Louis 1975,158-75. See also Lyon 1821,30-31; Barth 1857,63-64, for
figs, olives, vines, almonds, pomegranates, grain and saffron being
cultivated in the region in the nineteenth century.
15. Despois 1935,121-25, described cereal cultivation as a lottery.
Modern wheat yields (1974 and 1978) of between 327-344 Kg/ha (Polservice
1980) are well below figures for other Mediterranean countries published
in 1938 in the international Yearbook of Agricultural Statistics 1922-38.
Egypt headed the list (1710 kg/ha), whilst Tunisia (400 kg/ha) and
Algeria (540 kg/ha) were the lowest along with Libya.
16. Franchetti 1914,374-415.
17. Despois 1935,109,116-19.
18. Despois 1935,109-111.
19. Bronson 1982, states that there is a 20% total crop failure rate in this
kind of marginal cultivation.
20. Lyon 1821,35; Nachtigal 1974,42-43; Beechey and Beechey 1828,507,
on the impact made by Beni Ulid on early explorers. Bronson 1982,
urges modern research on the olive cultivar growing at Beni Ulid,
which must be a particularly drought resistant species.
21. Bates 1914,9-12 (Augila oasis, 116,000 palms; Siwa, 163,000;
Dakhla, 200,000); Moreau 1947,125 (the Nefzaoua oases contain over
700,000 trees); RSGI 1931,579 (Fezzan, 900,000).
22. Barth 1857,90; Lyon 1821,270-73; RSGS 1931; 579.
23. As note 22. Also Lyon 1821,72-73; Briggs 1960,8-14. The list
includes turnips, beans, peas, carrots, onions, peppers, garlic,
tomatoes, melons, olives, figs, apples, peaches, apricots, grapes,
mint, tobacco, herbs.
24. BMA 1947,36; Holmboe 1933,27-29 mentions seeing jackals and hyenas
close to the Syrtic coast.
25. Holmboe 1933,29, claimed to have spotted a leopard also. Capot-Rey
1953,91, referred to the extinction of ostriches in Tunisia (1790)
and Algeria (1845) but Daumas 1850/1971, devoted a chapter of his book
on the Saharan nomads to ostrich hunting (50-62).
26. Capot-Rey 1953,9; Bovill 1968,6-9; Kanter 1967,105.
27. Kanter 1967,104. Since 1960 the numbers of camels have decreased
but those of other species have increased, Polservice 1980, B-27.
28. Moreau 1947,166.
29. Briggs 1960,17-33; Johnson 1969,7-10; 1973,40-47; Evenari et al 1971,
301-323.
30. Bronson 1982; Johnson 1973,41-43; see also Franchetti 1914,519-597,
who includes phhtographs of the principal types of livestock.
31. Evenari et al 1971,308-9; Johnson 1973,44,59-66.
32. Barker 1981,131-45 and 1983,1-49, discusses different traditional
pastoral systems in antiquity, without perhaps giving this fact due
weight. cf. Strabo XVII, 3,19, on the importance of horse breeding
in antiquity.