The nomad Horde sows its grain
Editorial contextFrom the Venetian Josafa Barbaro, who lived at Tana, Hammer reports that Ulu Muhammad kept his camp moving for eleven years without letting the Horde sow in March and wait for the harvest, so it suffered grain shortage and lived on meat and milk alone. Normally, in February the camp announced the sowing day; those who wanted to grow grain drove out with wagons and seed to fields a day or two from the camp. The harvest was rich: fifty-fold for grain and a hundred-fold for millet. Nomads, in other words, also farmed.
Otherwise it was the custom that in the month of February the day on which sowing should take place in March was proclaimed in the camp. On that day those who wished to grow grain drove with their wagons and seed to the fields, usually one or two days' journey from the court camp, and tilled them. The harvest was plentiful, for the soil gave fifty-fold of the grain
Working translation
Original wording
Sonst war es der Gebrauch, dass im Monathe Februar im Lager der Tag, an welchem im März gesäet werden sollte, ausgerufen ward. An diesem Tage fuhren die, so Getreide bauen wollten, mit ihren Wagen und Samen auf die gewöhnlich vom Hoflager Eine oder zwey Tagreisen entlegenen Felder und bestellten dieselben. Die Ernte war ergiebig, denn der Boden gab das Fünfzigfache des Kornes
About The Horde of Ulu Muhammad and Küchük Muhammad (Golden Horde Tatars)
Continue in this sourceHammer-Purgstall's History of the Golden Horde (1840)1200 to 1499 · 10 passages