Both villages grow mainly cereals. In Elbashï, the commonest is wheat, as in most plateau villages; in Sakaltutan, exceptionally, rye, though both villages grow both. They also grow some barley, and a crop of mixed wheat and rye, which produces a flour considered specially appetising for bread-making.
Yields are poor. People do not normally express these by area but by return for seed sown. Estimates for normal yields varied considerably, and the different types of measurement involved made comparisons unreliable. Five for one was generally agreed to be the figure in Sakaltutan, though in fact in 1949, I950 and 1951, the harvest was considerably below these modest expectations. In Elbashï yields seemed slightly higher, and in 1951 and 1952, Elbashï had satisfactory harvests. Normal yields appeared to be about eight cwt per acre (one metric ton per ha.) in Sakaltutan and perhaps about ten cwt in Elbashï (II metric tons per ha.).
Agricultural efficiency is further impeded by the familiar problem of fragmented holdings. The pattern of fragmentation varies between the more distant, less fertile land, where some villagers still retain fairly large fields, and the valuable well manured land close to the village, where the pieces may be minute. This difference is readily explicable in terms of the