The worker is responsible for everything necessary for the proper cultivation of the fruit: ploughing, watering, pruning, pollination, drying in the sun, preparing its place, maintaining the water channels, harvesting, and the like. The owner of the property, on the other hand, is responsible for whatever maintains it, such as repairing a wall, running watercourses, maintaining the waterwheel, and the like.
“The worker is responsible for everything necessary for the proper cultivation of the fruit.” As for what is necessary for preserving the underlying property, it is the owner’s responsibility, as will be mentioned.
His statement, “ploughing,” means ploughing the land.
His statement, “watering,” means watering the trees.
His statement, “pruning”: pruning means cutting off inferior branches. Trees and date palms may have inferior, dry branches, and removing these is the worker’s responsibility. In common usage, this is called trimming.
His statement, “pollination,” means pollinating the fruit of the date palm.
His statement, “drying in the sun,” refers to the fruit after it has been harvested. It must be laid out in the sun until it dries, and this is the worker’s responsibility.
His statement, “preparing its place,” means preparing the place where it is dried in the sun, known as the threshing floor. In earlier times, they would designate a place for sun-drying in an open area. They would, for example, arrange pebbles around it and apply gypsum to it so that it would be clean and the fruit could dry upon it.
His statement, “the water channels,” means maintaining the water channels, namely the irrigation ditches, which farmers make into basins.
His statement, “harvesting and the like”: harvesting is likewise the worker’s responsibility. As for harvesting dates from the palms, they hold that each of the two parties is responsible in proportion to his share. If it is stipulated that the worker is responsible, there is no problem with that—that is, harvesting the dates from the palm. Thus, if the shares are in thirds, then