At that time, when the village was very extensive, it had around 270 households, most of which were livestock owners. Each household had around thirty sheep, and their lives were prosperous. Some even had two hundred sheep or more. My father and grandfather each had more than two hundred sheep, and part of this number had been given to other villages for safekeeping. However, our livestock ownership dates back to before our migration.
The people of Dorvan cultivated some fodder on their limited land for their animals. They would collect surplus fodder from the mountains in the summer and store it. At the beginning of spring, they would take their livestock to Karaj and its surrounding areas since there was no snow there, and the animals could graze. They would stay there for at least one month and sometimes up to forty days. When the snow melted and water became available, they would return to the village and the mountain pastures.
Livestock ownership had its own customs and rules. For instance, each set of thirty sheep was considered one unit, and all transactions were based on this unit. Owners would mark their sheep with specific marks unique to each owner. Then they would combine their flocks, and the owners had to take turns guarding the sheep, one night per unit. In the evening, they would milk the sheep, and each owner would measure the milk using a special wooden instrument called “Laleh,” which had notches. For example, they would measure one, two, or three notches, depending on the quantity. They would mark it, and finally, they would mix all the milk together. However, the final yields would be divided according to the number of units. For example, someone who had ninety sheep would get three days’ worth of the total yield, someone with fewer sheep would get two days, and someone with even fewer would get just one day. In the end, they would give the milk to one person who would turn it into cheese and sell it in the town. Besides that, those who had excess milk would sometimes boil it and make yogurt or even make “Doogh” (a yogurt-based drink), and sometimes they would turn it into “Kashk” (whey). Those who made cheese would sometimes mix some of the whey with various ingredients and eat it with bread, honey, wheat, rice bran, and meat stew. They would pour it into their food, making it tasty and aromatic.
Women managed these activities, but the men were responsible for the livestock. Each day, the remaining milk belonged to the lambs. In the evening, they would bring the lambs so that they could have their share of the milk. The lambs were kept separately from the rest of the flock, and a shepherd was responsible for them. Among other customs of livestock ownership, when autumn came, they would fatten the older sheep and sell them to butchers in the town. They would not keep male lambs; similarly, in winter, they would fatten them and sell them. Sometimes, butchers themselves would come to the villages to buy sheep. Among the livestock owners in Dorvan, there were specific economic relationships, each with its own name and terms of agreement. For example, one person might rent a certain number of sheep, and at delivery time, he would give back four sheep for each unit. He would give four sheep back to the owner and keep one for himself or pay for each sheep with one-fourth of a “Charak” (a unit of local measurement) of oil.
In summary, over time, the mountain pastures gradually became poor. Those 270 households had several thousand sheep, but there was not enough fodder, and ultimately, livestock ownership became weak. In 1941, my late father advised the villagers to engage in gardening. He said that there was abundant water here, and they should use their lands for fodder cultivation. However, they did not accept this suggestion. Later, he himself was the first to transform his lands into apple orchards. He had some good apple trees, but after his death, they were neglected and eventually lost. The apples grown there were very delicious. At that time, there were no cold storage facilities in Iran, so apple growers would store apples in special storage rooms, with a layer of soft soil on top. Then they would sell them in the market and make a profit during the Eid holidays. After 1941, gardening gradually became more common in Dorvan, but the people did not have significant income from it. This led to gradual migration, mostly to Karaj.