[The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 4. (of 7): Babylon by George Rawlinson]@TWC D-Link book
The Seven Great Monarchies Of The Ancient Eastern World, Vol 4. (of 7): Babylon

CHAPTER II
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Palms, too, grow in the country, and apples, and fruit-trees of various kinds.

Wheat, it will be observed, and barley are placed first, since it was especially as a grain country that Babylonia was celebrated.

The testimonies of Herodotus, Theophrastus, Strabo, and Pliny as to the enormous returns which the Babylonian farmers obtained from their corn lands have been already cited.

No such fertility is known anywhere in modern times; and, unless the accounts are grossly exaggerated, we must ascribe it, in part, to the extraordinary vigor of a virgin soil, a deep and rich alluvium; in part, perhaps, to a peculiar adaptation of the soil to the wheat plant, which the providence of God made to grow spontaneously in this region, and nowhere else, so far as we know, on the whole face of the earth.
Besides wheat, it appears that barley, millet, and lentils were cultivated for food, while vetches were grown for beasts, and sesame for the sake of the oil which can be expressed from its seed.

All grew luxuriantly, and the returns of the barley in particular are stated at a fabulous amount.


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