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diff --git a/34245.txt b/34245.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6e57a85 --- /dev/null +++ b/34245.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4081 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Khedive's Country, by George Manville Fenn + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Khedive's Country + +Author: George Manville Fenn + +Illustrator: Dittrich of Cairo + +Release Date: November 8, 2010 [EBook #34245] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KHEDIVE'S COUNTRY *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +The Khedive's Country, by George Manville Fenn. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +________________________________________________________________________ +THE KHEDIVE'S COUNTRY, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +Man's oldest pursuit was undoubtedly the tilling of the soil. He may in +his earliest beginnings have combined therewith a certain amount of +hunting while he was waiting for his crops to grow, and was forced into +seeking wild fruits and turning up and experimenting on the various +forms of root, learning, too, doubtless with plenty of bitter +punishment, to distinguish between the good and nutritious and the +poisonous and bad. + +As a matter of course, a certain amount of fighting would ensue. Wild +animals would be encountered, or fellow savages would resent his +intrusion upon lands where the acorns were most plentiful, or some tasty +form of fungus grew. But whether from natural bent or necessity, as +well as from his beginnings recorded in the ancient Book, he was a +gardener, and the natural outcome of gardening was, as ideas expanded, +his becoming a farmer. + +The world has gone rolling on, and many changes have taken place, but +these pursuits remain unaltered. The love of a garden seems to be +inborn; and though probably there are children who have never longed to +have one of their own, they are rarities, for of whichever sex they be, +the love of this form of nature still remains. + +There are those who garden or farm for pleasure, and there are those, of +course, who, either on a large or small scale, cultivate the soil for +profit, while the grades between are innumerable. But here in England, +towards the end of such a season as we have had--one that may be surely +termed a record--one is tempted to say, Where does the pleasure or the +profit come in? + +Certainly during the present period, or cycle, or whatever it may be +termed, the English climate is deteriorating. Joined to that assertion +is the patent fact that the produce of the garden and farm has largely +gone down in price through the cheapness of the foreign imports thrown +upon the market, and the man with small or large capital who looks +forward to making a modest living out of the land, without any dreams of +fortune, may well pause before proceeding to invest his bawbees, and ask +himself, Where shall I go? + +Thousands have debated this question for generations, with the result +that the Antipodes have been turned into Anglo-Saxon farms; Van Diemen's +Land has become another England, with its meadows, hedgerows, and +orchards; New Zealand, the habitat of tree-fern and pine, has been +transformed. Even the very surface has changed, and the land that in +the past hardly boasted a four-footed animal is now rich in its cattle; +while Australia, the dry and shadowless, the country of downs, has been +made alive with flocks, its produce mainly tallow and wool till modern +enterprise and chemistry rendered it possible for the frozen mutton to +reach England untainted after its long voyage across the tropics to our +homes. + +To keep to the temperate or cold regions, the name of Canada or the +great North-West springs up as does the corn which fills our granaries; +while the more enterprising cultivators of the soil, who have had souls +above the ordinary plodding of the farmer's life--the fancy tillers, so +to speak--with the tendency towards gardening, produced our sugar from +the West Indies and British Guiana, and tobacco and cotton from the +Southern States, long ere the Stars and Stripes waved overhead; while, +to journey eastward, the gardens have flourished in India and Ceylon +with indigo, spices, and coffee; and later on, wherever suitable slopes +and terraces were found, the Briton has planted the attractive +glossy-leaved tea shrub, until the trade with China for its fragrant +popular produce has waned. + +There are plenty of lands of promise for the cultivator, unfortunately +too often speculative and burdened by doubt. They are frequently +handicapped by distance, extremes of climate, and unsuitability to the +British constitution. As in the past, too, imagination often plays its +part, and the would-be emigrant hankers after something new, in spite of +the cloud of possible failure that may hover on his horizon. + +There is, of course, a great attraction in the unknown, and untried +novelty is always tempting. But, on the other side, there is the old +and safe, the cultivation of a land which in the past has been +world-famed for its never-failing produce, its mighty granaries, and its +vast fertility, that can be traced back for thousands of years, whose +soil, far from becoming exhausted, is ever being renewed, and which at +the present time is undergoing a transformation that will make its +produce manifold. + +Of course, the country which contains these qualities is the familiar +old land of Egypt, the dominion of the Khedive, which, in spite of its +wondrous fertility, has had little attraction for the earnest cultivator +of the earth. It has been the granary of the world for ages; but its +cultivation has been left to its own people, who have gone on with their +old-time barbaric tillage, leaving Nature, in her lavish bounteousness, +to do the rest. + +In every way wonderful changes are coming over Egypt, where for +countless ages the policy of the people seemed to be devoted entirely, +as far as the vegetable world was concerned, to the growth of food, or +such fibrous plants as proved their suitability for the manufacture of +the light clothing they required. Any attempt to permanently beautify +the country by taking advantage of its fertility, and commencing the +planting to any great extent of that which was so lacking in the shape +of trees, was left in abeyance till the coming into power of the great +ancestor of the present Khedive, Mehemet Ali. This thinker, of broad +intellect, made some beginnings in this direction, and later on Ismail +Pacha gave a great impetus thereto by enlisting the services of a clever +French gardener, who, fully awakened at once to the possibilities of +climate and land, and with ideas running very much in favour of +landscape gardening, began to introduce and encourage the growth of +shade trees, a complete novelty in a country where the ideas of the +people seem to tend towards placing their dwellings in the full glare of +the sun. + +Gardens began to spring up, trees were planted in suitable places, and +the start having been once fairly made, the love of imitation led to the +establishment of a taste or fashion, and planting has now gone on to +such an extent that there are those who are ready to assert that while +the face of Egypt is becoming changed, the presence of the +rapidly-growing and increasing trees is having its effect, through the +attraction and formation of clouds, upon the meteorology of the country. +If this continues, as it may, to a vast extent, the fertility of Egypt +will no longer be confined to the narrow strips on either side of the +Nile, but its deserts may become physical features of the past. + +The idea of those in olden times was to pile up huge erections and to +let what came spontaneously grow as was its wont. Now the enlightenment +of the new rulers and the leavening of Western civilisation are working +wonders. That to which Ismail Pacha gave such a fillip is being +fostered and advanced by the present Khedive, and, the ball being well +set rolling, his people are finding out that nearly everything that +loves moisture and sunshine will grow prodigiously. It takes time, of +course, but many of the beautiful shade trees that have been planted +have in forty years reached a height of eighty feet, and become rich in +their heavy foliage. The varieties of the eucalyptus, not always the +most beautiful of trees from their greyish leafage and want of shadow, +are still a wonderful addition to a dry and thirsty land. Considering +their original habitat in Australia, it was a foregone conclusion that +they would do well here, and they have proved to be most rapid of +growth. + +Then there is the magnificent Flamboyer des Indes, and scores of other +beautiful children of Nature, which only required care and fostering in +their tender years to prove their liking for their new home. Endless +are the trees that, once given a start, leave behind their scrubby, +starved appearance, and become in maturity well able to care for +themselves and beautify the prospect on every hand. + +Acacias, with their perfumed blossoms; the deep green shady sycamore, +that good old favourite like the plane of the Levant; the feathery +tamarisk, and scores of ornamental trees, flourish well; while, +combining the ornamental with the useful, there is the fine, +slow-growing old mulberry, with its rich juicy fruit, and its +suggestions of the soft straw-coloured or golden yellow rustling silk; +for if ever there was a country favoured by Nature, in its dryness and +absence of rain, for the prosperity of the caterpillar of the silkworm +moth, it should be Egypt, where enterprise and a sensible use of capital +ought to leave Asia and Turkey in Europe behind. + +Leaving trees and turning to flowers, gardens in Egypt can be made, and +are made, perfect paradises in the meaning of old Gerard and Parkinson; +for the country is a very rosery, where the modern decorative sorts +bloom well in company with the more highly scented old-fashioned kinds +largely cultivated for the distillation of that wonderfully persistent +essential oil, the otto or attar of roses. + +Here the lover of a garden and of exotics can dispense with conservatory +or the protection of glass, and, giving attention to moisture and shade, +make his garden flush ruddily with the poinsettia, and may also find +endless pleasure in the cultivation of some of the more beautiful +varieties of the orchid family, which here in England demand the +assistance of a stove. + +Perhaps the most attractive time for the visitor from England, who has +thoughts of settling in this country, to see it at its best is when the +Nile is rising to its height, bringing down from Equatorial regions its +full flow of riches and the means of supplying the cultivator with that +which will reward him for his labours beneath the torrid sun. + +At this time the crops are approaching maturity; the vast fields of +maize have been passing through the various stages of green, waving, +flag-like leaf, and hidden immature cob, with its beautiful, delicate +tassel, prelude of the golden amber or black treasure that is to come +and gladden the eye of the spectator in every direction. The grassy +millet, or _dourra_, is equally beautiful in its wavy-wind-swept tracts; +the cotton crops are gathering strength prior to the swelling and +bursting of the silky boll; and the majestic sugar-cane towers up in its +rapid progress, till the whole country is smiling in preparation for the +gladsome laughter of the harvest that is to come, for it has been a busy +time. The fellaheen, in their thousands, have been occupied in that +wonderful irrigation which has been the careful distribution through +meandering canal, straight-cut dyke, and endless little rill, of the +lurid thick water of the Nile, laden with its rich plant-sustaining +fertility, to the roots of the thirsty plants, and stimulating them +beneath the ardent sunshine into a growth that is almost startling. In +other parts the same waters are being ingeniously led to the cultivated +lands that are being made ready for the more ordinary grain crops--the +wheat, the homely barley, and the Egyptian bean, the food of man and +beast alike; while in a country where grassy down and ordinary meadow, +such as form the pasture of sheep, oxen and kine at home, are unknown, +tract upon tract is annually sown with Egyptian clover, lentils, and +similar crops--ready for immediate use as cattle food in which the +animals can graze bit by bit as far as their tethering lines will +permit--for cutting and stacking up green in the form of ensilage, and +consumption when the crops are past--or for hay. + +The granary of the world, the vast store-house for nations: people have +gone there to buy, but not to till; and yet it presents so many +qualities that the wonder is that it should have been so long neglected; +while now, in its state of transformation through the opening of the +great dam and the cutting and forming of miles more irrigating canal, +there is no bound to what may be done in the future. The time seems to +be approaching when Egypt will no longer be spoken of as a narrow strip +of fertile soil running from north to south and bordering the Nile, for +its future seems to be that the barren sand far back from its banks will +be turned into fertile land, adding its produce of corn and cotton to +the store-house of the world. + +As is well-known, vast tracts of Egypt are by nature sterile; but upon +these barren primaeval sands there has been superimposed for uncountable +ages the alluvium of the Nile, so that, as an old writer says, Egypt +itself may be looked upon as the gift of one of the mightiest rivers of +the world. He speaks of the Nile as being the father of this country, +bounteous in its gift, a strange, mysterious, solitary stream which +bears down in its bosom the riches of the interior of Africa, carrying +onward from far away south the fertility of the luxuriant tropics, and +turning the sterile sand into the richest soil of the world. It is this +richness of the south that has changed the Delta from an arid waste into +a scene of matchless beauty. + +One gazes upon it from the summit of one of the pyramids or some high +citadel, over cities and ruins of cities, palm grove, green savannah, +palace and garden, luxuriant cornfield, and olive grove. Far distant, +shimmering in a silvery haze and stretching away into the dimness of the +horizon, lies the boundless desert, now being rapidly reclaimed, +consequent upon the great barrage experiments for the supplying of the +many winding canals with the fertile waters of the parent river. And of +these still growing distributors of life, these bearers of commerce, the +numbers are almost beyond belief. They are the veins and arteries of +the country, depositing as they do the rich soil which furnishes +abundance, and then acting as the waterways upon which, in due time, the +harvests are borne throughout the length and breadth of the land. + +There is a great discrepancy in the reports as to the number of these +canals, and statements made and chronicled a few years back are not of +much use as statistics at the present day; while the completion of the +great dam will give such an impulse to their formation that the mileage, +even if properly estimated now, will be useless as a basis ten years +hence. + +One traveller, in his ignorance of the country, estimated the number of +these irrigating water distributors as only ninety, while another of +about the same date gives Upper Egypt alone six thousand. Probably, +though, in this instance he included every branch and branchlet that led +the water amongst the cultivated lands. + +The water of these canals, renewed as it is by the annual risings of the +Nile, goes on steadily changing, wherever it is led, the primaeval sand +of the desert into rich deep soil, after the fashion, but on a grander +scale, of the ingenious way in which portions of fen and bog land in +north Lincolnshire and south Yorkshire have been transformed into +fertile farms. As compared to what is going on in Egypt, this process +is trivial in the extreme; but by man's forethought and ingenuity many a +peat bog and waste that aforetime grew nothing but reed and rush has +been made, by draining and leading upon it the muddy waters of the Ouse, +Trent, and their tidal tributaries, into rich and prosperous farms, +producers of the necessities of life. These warp farms, as they are +termed, stand high in favour with the cultivators of the soil. They +have taken years to produce, perhaps, and the process has consisted of +but one treatment. + +In Egypt, on the contrary, this depositing of the rich mud goes on year +by year, adding fresh soil and additional fertility each season; and the +possibilities of increase are almost without limit; while the drainage +produced by the falling of the Nile, the sandy subsoil, and the +wonderful evaporation of this sunny, almost rainless land, entirely +preclude the newly fertilised tracts becoming sour and stale. + +Those interested should know somewhat of the constituents of this Nile +mud, which is brought down from the south to be deposited, it must be +borne in mind, upon sand which in the course of cultivation will +naturally, as it is mingled with the mud, render it open, porous, and +highly suitable for vegetable growth. A rough analysis proves that +quite half of the deposit is argillaceous, or clayey earth, one fourth +carbonate of lime. These constituents alone should be sufficient to +gladden the heart of any farmer or gardener, without counting the iron, +carbonate of magnesia, and silica. + +So many of our agricultural outposts are only to be reached by long and +tedious journeys across ocean and then inland. Egypt is, of course, in +Africa, but only a few days' journey from our own shores. The sea +transit is short and frequent; and the country, the ancient mysterious +land of the Dark Ages, is rapidly being opened out by rail. The +climate, in spite of the heat, is one of the finest in the world, and +its healthiness is proverbial; while, best of all for the would-be +adventurer, it is under an enlightened rule, beneath which progress and +civilisation are flourishing more and more. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +Reports from the highest quarters supply abundant statistics of the +great advantage already manifested by the completion of the Nile +Barrage. The increase of land available for culture through the +conservation of the water that has always run to waste, and the +augmented powers supplied for irrigation by holding up such vast bodies +of water, have resulted in returns that are striking in the extreme, and +this after so short a time has elapsed since the sluices were completed +and the great dams put to the test. The value of land and rentals have +gone up, water has been utilised at earlier dates than were customary of +old, and everything points not only to stability but to a future for +Egypt such as could not have been dreamed of a score of years ago. In +connection, therefore, with its future prospects from an agricultural +point of view, and the encouragement given by the Government to those +who are disposed to enter upon a business career in this favoured +country, so as to bring to bear experience, the knowledge of culture, +and the use of improved implements to add vastly to Egypt's produce, a +short sketch of what has been done by one whose faith in the delta as a +vast agricultural centre has always been strong, will not here be out of +place. + +We allude to the efforts made by his Highness the Khedive in acquiring +and reclaiming tracts of land in the neighbourhood of Cairo and turning +them into fertile farms. + +A trip to one of these nearest to Cairo struck a visitor directly as +being hall-marked by the stamp "Progress," for it was reached by a +little model railway which skirts his Highness's estates. After leaving +the station, a short drive brings the visitor almost at once to a series +of scenes indicating careful management and model farming, though there +is much in it that is novel to an English eye, consequent on its being +contrived to suit the exigencies of an Eastern country where but little +rain is known to fall. + +One of the first objects reached upon entering the cultivated land was +the great granary or store, composed of spacious erections of but one +storey high, low-roofed, and enclosing a large central square. In some +of these buildings were stored up sacks of corn, while in others lay +large heaps of the newly picked cotton, of whose cultivation more will +be said elsewhere. + +The land around this highly cultivated domain is very fertile, and the +air exhilarating; and at present it is letting at the rate of 10 pounds +per feddan, which represents the Egyptian acre, something larger than +our own. This is the present price, for enterprise so far has done +little upon this side of Cairo in the shape of market gardening, +although the district is only twelve minutes by rail from the centre of +this important city, and one hour's distance for a walking horse and +cart. + +Attached to the building above referred to were well-erected ranges of +cattle-sheds, not occupied for fattening purposes, but for the culture +of the farm, this culture being carried on not by horses, but by oxen-- +buffaloes and ordinary bullocks--which are regularly used, as at one +time in Old England, yoked to the plough, harrow, or roller, and on some +of the high grounds which are let by his Highness, for turning the +water-wheels, though on the model farms steam power only is used for the +purposes of irrigation. + +These sheds are built in the same fashion as the granary, a noteworthy +point in connection with the big, sleek, well-fed occupants being that +instead of, as in English fashion, standing in one long row with their +backs to the visitor, they are ranged in ranks, fifty-six in all, +sideways to the spectator, facing so many feeding troughs, and each +provided with its tethering halter and a sliding iron ring attached to +an iron bar, giving freedom to each animal to stand or lie down at its +pleasure without any risk of self-inflicted injury. + +As a specimen of the model-farm-like erection of these buildings, it may +be stated that the feeding troughs are of solid masonry, made impervious +and clean by an inner lining of zinc. No partitions are used to +separate these draught cattle, but by the arrangement of the haltering +they can be kept at such a distance that no two could come into contact. +Everything was beautifully clean, the great animals being amply +supplied with dry earth for litter, its disinfecting qualities being +admirable from a cleanly point of view, and valuable for the purposes of +the farm. + +One of the principal foods for cattle upon the farm is _Tibn_, as it is +called by the Egyptians--chopped or bruised straw, made more nutritious, +according to the needs of the animal in feeding, by the addition of +beans or barley; and in the progress across the place a huge stack of +this chaff-like provender was passed, some ten feet high, but totally +unprotected from the weather by thatch. The reply to questions by the +manager was simple in the extreme, yet in itself a chapter on the +beautiful nature of the climate. The reason why the stack had no +protecting thatch was that there was no need, the rain was so trifling, +and when the wind and its habit of scattering stacks was mentioned, the +inquirer was told that it did no harm. + +In passing one enclosure sheep were encountered--a class of farming, as +stated elsewhere, little affected on account of the absence of grass +downs and ordinary grazing fields; but these were in a +ealthy, flourishing state, well fleeced, with a fine white + +semi-transparent-looking wool, indicating relationship to the Angora +breed, specimens of the latter being seen later on in fold. + +Some of the fields had been devoted to the growth of cotton. This had +lately been picked and transferred to the great store, the wood of the +beautiful plant so stored being yet upon the ground waiting for transfer +to the stacks for fuel purposes, it being utilised for the steam engines +used upon the farm, especially for working the water-raising machinery +so extensively needed in this occasionally thirsty land. + +Farther on an implement was being used in preparing fields for +irrigation; and as in its simplicity of construction it was dragged over +the great enclosure, it drew up the well-tilled, friable soil into +ridges or slightly raised portions whose object was to regulate the flow +of irrigating water equally all over the field, so that when it was +flooded no portion should get more than its due share, one part being +swamped while another would be comparatively dry. Simple in the extreme +in its construction, as the illustration shows, the implement was +thoroughly efficient in the way in which it did its work, with but +slight exertion on the part of the sluggish oxen by which it was drawn. + +All this was novel, yet paradoxically old-world and strange, but in the +next field there was a combination of the old and new--a pair of oxen +used as in Saxon times, and down to not so many years back even near +London, patiently plodding along beneath their yoke and drawing an +emanation from our Eastern counties in the shape of a Ransome and Sims' +harrow, light and effective, apparently as much at home and progressing +as easily as if on a Suffolk farm. + +There was a familiarity about these fields which took off the dead +monotony of the level, for they were surrounded by good-sized, +well-grown trees, whose aspect betokened health and a suitability of +climate, while on a nearer approach they showed their foreignness to the +soil, proving to be a variety of the well-known Siberian crab, or cherry +apple, beloved of boys, but here grown in such bulk as to suggest being +used for crushing and utilising in some special way. + +One thing that strikes the European in Egypt, when passing beyond the +more carefully cultivated portions near the city, is the absence of +trees other than the indigenous palms; but here, in these +newly-reclaimed portions, much has been done, as already mentioned, in +the way of planting. For instance, the approaches to a range of +buildings in connection with this farm were studded with acacias, +ornamenting what proved to be the pigeon houses which are such a regular +adjunct to an Egyptian cultivator's home. Their occupants bear a strong +resemblance to our own blue rocks, or wood pigeons. Another building +was the dairy farmhouse, well-built, simple, and most suitable; while in +the neighbouring fields the cows were pasturing after the economical +plan carried out in our Channel Islands--where each milk-producer is not +allowed to wander through and waste the precious herbage at her own +sweet will, but is tethered to a stake--while the calves had an +enclosure to themselves. Here were many examples of experiments being +tried to improve the breed, the favourite animal being a cross between +the Swiss--Fribourg--and native; and in this cross-breeding only those +proved to be advantageous are retained. Such as do not show some marked +advance upon the native stock, either for breeding or the production of +milk, are sold. + +One very fine sire was close at hand--a Swiss bull with a noble head and +short curved horns, fine and long of coat, which about brow and neck +formed itself into short, crisp curls like those that cluster upon the +brow of the classic Hercules. This grand animal greatly resembled, save +that it was much larger, one of the choice and jealously guarded +patriarchs of a Jersey cattle-shed; while his home-like aspect was added +to greatly by the familiar ring in the nose, which is not considered +necessary for the native animals. + +A little farther on were those rather uncouth-looking, heavily-horned +animals, the buffaloes, which run side by side in Egyptian estimation +with the ordinary cattle for all practical purposes. The improvement in +their breed is also studied by the addition of fresh blood and the +choice of sires remarkable for special qualities. One particularly good +specimen was pointed out, distinguished by the heavy hump forward, a +fine beast lately brought from the Soudan. + +There are two distinct breeds of buffalo utilised in this country--the +productions of Upper and Lower Egypt, those from the latter district +being reckoned the better. + +In this portion of the farm and around the buildings fruit trees were +plentiful, diversifying the scene and adding greatly to its +attractiveness, and looking novel to a visitor from Europe, who saw an +abundant growth of the Seville or bitter orange, and the cool, +greeny-grey picturesque olive of Southern Europe and the East. + +Among other fruit trees seen here were some bearing long pods, called +_chiar shambar_ by the natives. The fruit of these trees, which is long +and green, but which turns black soon after picking, seemed at a +distance like a huge bean, suggesting that the fruit was akin to the +carob or locust bean, this idea being emphasised by the sweet glutinous +pulp in which the seeds were buried. This pulp is pleasant to the +taste, but slightly bitter, and is largely used by the natives boiled up +with water, as a drink on account of its medicinal qualities. + +Taken all in all, the visit to the Khedive's farm was most attractive, +and pregnant with proofs of the fertility of the well-tended land, for +on every side were examples of the successful culture of many of the +agricultural products treated of in detail from the notes of the +student-like superintendent, who has all in his charge. + +The place, as before said, may be regarded as a model and example of +what can be done with land that has been looked upon for ages as so much +desert, when all that was required was industry, application, and the +ingenuity necessary for extending the action of the Nile flood. Nature +has always been ready to do the rest. + +The Khedive has another tract of farm land, which he purchased some time +back, about two kilometres from the estate just described, at Koubbeh. +This is Mostorod, where he has a simple-looking villa. On the way here +one of the first things that attract the attention of an Englishman is +that home-like contrivance so often missing in foreign countries--a +hedge dividing the fields from the roadway and separating them from each +other. These were unknown before the time of Abbas Helmi the Second, +and what may be done in time to come in the surroundings of farms by +means of the simple, well cut back hawthorn remains to be proved. Here +the shrubby growth, chosen for its neat form and comparatively rapid +development, is the bitter orange. + +At Mostorod many of the surroundings are marked by the energetic +proceedings of the practical farmer. Here steam is at work, like the +patient slave it is, forming the motive power in one case for raising +water for all farming purposes, in another setting in action the mills, +which rapidly turn out and clean the meal ground from wheat and Indian +corn. + +Buildings are here containing the various grains and seeds; others are +the storehouses for one or other of the three pickings produced in the +cultivation of cotton; and at the entrance of every building, just +inside the door, there is a pitch pine wood frame, with its glass +covering, and a paper on which is a record of the amount and nature of +whatever is brought in or taken out of the building in the shape of +corn, cotton, seed, or whatever may be stored. + +Here, in opposition to much that is modern, there is a large, +old-fashioned Egyptian stable, very thick of wall. The building is +divided into two chambers, connected and lit from overhead, the light +coming through the roof of wood and rafters thickly thatched with reeds. + +These rafters are supported by thick round columns formed of the +ancient, sun-dried brick for which Egypt has long been famed. Near by +something of the old-world fashion of the place was visible in a typical +grinding mill such as may be seen in common use in pretty well every +village. It had a chamber to itself, and differed little from those +which might have been seen in England fifty or a hundred years ago, set +in action by an often blindfolded horse, but here worked by a bullock. + +Ornamentation is not wanting at Mostorod, for the villa has its garden +brightened by fruit trees, and the pillar-stemmed palms, with their +leafy crowns, are frequent objects in the transparent, sunny air. + +Close at hand is the village on the Khedivial estate. In it the streets +are narrow and the houses of one height, thoroughly waterproof, and of +the familiar construction, of sun-dried bricks covered with white +plaster, and, being of an earlier date in the improvement the Khedive is +striving for in the poorer class dwellings, not to be compared with the +spick and span new houses he has lately had erected at Mariout, not far +from Alexandria. + +Hard by this village is a very large barn or stack yard with more native +pigeon houses, the whole of the surroundings being extremely quaint and +picturesque. + +Again, a short distance onward stands the native village of Mostorod, +with its attractive little mosque and a tomb erected to the memory of a +saint. + +The Ismailia Canal supplies water to the Koubbeh and Mostorod estates, +and in this neighbourhood is a good deal of very valuable agricultural +land, some portions of which are let to the fellaheen for three months +in a year, so as to enable them to grow a crop of maize. + +Hereabouts, tethered in the clover fields, a herd of the Khedive's +camels are pastured, many of these being bred for carrying purposes, +others (the slighter of build) for riding and speed. The scene is +attractive from its verdure, but comparatively treeless, though it is +worthy of mention that two solitary weeping willows do their best to +adorn the landscape--a plain with the suggestions of home in the shape +of lapwings, or birds bearing a very strong resemblance, which fly up +here and there. + +This estate is close to Heliopolis--the ancient On--where almost the +only suggestions of the City of the Sun are the sunshine and a great +square piece of white stone, bearing hieroglyphs, and in perfect +preservation, while in the distance stands up in solitary state the +far-famed Obelisk. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +"Words, words, words!" quoth Hamlet, and the reader of this sketch of +the possibilities in the way of cultivation offered by the Khedive's +dominions may be disposed to contemptuously say the same. But in the +following pages it is proposed to give proof of what may be done in an +ordinary way by one who is gardener for pleasure and health, supplier of +ordinary produce to the market, or farmer upon a larger scale, without +looking for a moment upon the vast increase that is bound to follow the +wider and wider distribution of that life of such a land--abundant +water, not merely for irrigation, but in this case charged year by year +with the rich fertilising mud of the vast equatorial regions regularly +borne down by the Nile in flood. + +Among the first questions an intending settler might ask respecting the +country that he intends to make his temporary or future home would +naturally be, "What is the place like? What sort of seasons are they?" + +Egypt is a country which may be said to be blessed with four seasons. +There is that which begins in July with the inundation of the Nile, when +for about two months the whole country of the Delta may be likened to a +vast lake dotted with islands represented by the towns and villages. +Naturally, then, the air is moist, and mornings and evenings have their +mists. In the second season, answering to our winter and early spring, +we have cold nights; but the days are hot, and the vegetation is rapid +and luxuriant. The third, corresponding to our spring, is the least +attractive; while the fourth, which continues until the rising of the +Nile, is in the highest degree delightful. + +Everyone has praised the Egyptian nights--cloudless skies, an intensely +bright moon, so bright that at harvest time, for reasons in connection +with the shedding of the grain, it is the custom amongst the farmers and +cultivators of the soil to take advantage of the coolness and light to +commence garnering their crops at midnight. So bright is the moon in +this extraordinarily clear atmosphere that the peasantry who sleep in +the open air are careful to shade their eyes from the rays, which are +often said to produce a more painful effect than those of the sun. + +These pages contain the experience of long years of patient study of the +cultivation of Egypt, of that carried on by the native, who for ages +past has looked to the soil for his sustenance. And of his practical +knowledge, that which is valuable has been adopted; while experiment, +experience, and the effects of modern cultivation have run with it side +by side. + +Every gardener and farmer knows, however enlightened he may be and fond +of the modern ways of doing things, that it is not wise to look +slightingly upon old-fashioned customs. _Experientia docet_ is a +well-known maxim, and the experience taught often by generations of +disappointments is worthy of all respect. + +Men go on cultivating and growing certain things which excite the +contempt of a stranger, but too often he lives to learn that there was +good reason for the practice, hence, animated by the spirit of respect +for the old, while striving to introduce the new and improved, the notes +and descriptions herein contained may be depended upon as being +thoroughly practical and well worthy the attention of every cultivator +who has at heart the future of the Delta and the higher irrigated lands +of Egypt. + +Further, it may be presumed that every reader is fully acquainted with +the fact that lower Egypt possesses a climate without extreme variations +of temperature; that winter is hardly known but as a name; and that, +though changes have taken place of late years, probably from increased +cultivation and planting, the rainfall is extremely small. And yet the +fertility of Egypt is proverbial, and due to this annual flooding of the +lands by the Nile, which--after the fashion, already referred to, of the +northern midlands of England, where so many acres have been flooded and +drained after a lengthened deposit of mud, or "warp," as it is termed-- +become rich in the extreme. The warping in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire +is an artificial and protracted process, carried out once only; the +warping of the land of Egypt is natural, and repeated year by year; +while as soon as the water has run off, the coating of mud, rich in all +the qualities of fertility, is ready to bear, after the merest +scratching of the soil, its abundant one, two, or even three crops in a +year. + +Here are possibilities, then, for the cultivator who is ready to bring +to bear all the appliances of modern science, the discoveries of +practical agricultural chemistry, and, above all, the mechanical and +ingenious inventions so admirable in a flat, open country, unbroken by +hedge or tree. + +Among the minor objects familiar to the tourist in his journey up the +Nile are the various means of raising water for the irrigation of the +crops. These have been, and still continue to be in many places +extremely primitive, for, as before stated, the fellaheen in their +conservative fashion are prone to cling to the inventions of their +forefathers. Hence they may still be seen laboriously at work with +their shadoofs, sakiehs, and other water-wheels worked by hand or mule +power, raising the fertilising fluid to a sufficient height to be +discharged and flow of itself, spreading over the patches of land +requiring irrigation. + +But these clumsy contrivances are giving place in the newly-reclaimed +and cultivated parts of the Delta to modern machinery, urged by motive +power, notably by steam, though to a great extent advantage is taken of +the wind; for it is a common thing to see in the landscape the circular +disc-like object, as noted at a distance, formed by a windmill with its +many fans, or "vans," standing at the edge of some canal or by one of +the many wells that have been dug upon the higher grounds. + +For though tract after tract may be desert, presenting nothing but +coarse growth and sand ready to drift before the wind, there is not much +difficulty in finding water, notably in the wide plateau known as +Mariout, spreading out in the direction of the Libyan Desert from +Alexandria. Here the sinking of wells results in the finding of water +at depths varying from twenty to forty feet, and boring to a greater +depth would doubtless produce a fuller supply, for in so flat and porous +a land, within easy measurable distance of the great inland sea, there +is every probability that an inexhaustible supply is within touch. And +nowadays the various ingenious contrivances of the mechanical engineer +are always ready, and at small cost, to supplement during the dry times +the abundant supply offered by the great river. Of course, this deals +solely with the higher grounds that are not reached without mechanical +help by the dam-supplied network of canals that already veins the +country, and projects for the increase of which are, since the opening +of the great works at Assiout and Assouan, either under consideration, +or already planned. + +The slow, clumsy hand labour of the shadoof and the awkward +cattle-worked sakieh, or earthen pot surrounded water-wheel, is now +being superseded in the larger tracts of cultivation by such ingenious +pieces of mechanism as the centrifugal pump, worked by steam, and so +contrived that it can be utilised on the bank of river or canal, and +with a suction tube turned down at any angle, so that it can be lowered +into any of the common wells that are sunk in all directions. The +portable steam engine used in connection therewith is one of the +grandest slaves of civilisation, playing its part on the large farms for +traction, threshing, straw chopping, or other of the many necessities of +cultivation. By means of these centrifugal pumps after the middle of +November on large estates the water has to be forced into the service +(estate) canals. + +A ten-horse power engine, driving a ten-inch pump, will irrigate the +same number of acres in twelve hours, lifting the water five feet, the +cost of raising water being two shillings per acre. The small occupiers +of land sometimes raise their supply from wells and canals by means of +Persian wheels or Archimedean screws. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +At Cairo when the Nile commences its annual rise, for the first few days +its tint seems to be green; but the general tone during the inundation +is of a dirty red, of course due to its being thickened with the mud +brought down from the south. During this rising, irrigation can be sent +freely flowing over all cultivated lands, as the river continues about +the level of the banks till the middle of November. + +In simple language, irrigation means the turning of desert into richly +fertile producing land. A great deal has been said and done, but +everything points to the fact that, however great and productive a +garden Egypt has been for countless years, it is still almost, as it +were, in its infancy. The erection of that stupendous piece of +engineering, the Assouan Dam, has already had effects that have +surpassed the expectations of its projectors; and writing upon this +subject, Sir William Willcocks, a gentleman whose knowledge of the +position is of the highest value, points out a series of facts that are +almost startling in their suggestions. He draws attention to the fact +that there are still two million acres of excellent land waiting to be +reclaimed after the simple fashion herein described, and then requiring +to be irrigated to the full extent needed--that is to say, perennially. + +These are large figures to deal with, but Egypt is a vast country, and +its powers of production almost beyond belief; but everything is bound +up in the one need--water supply; and it is this furnishing of life to +plants, and enabling them to find it latent, as it were, in the +far-spreading plains that are as yet but sand and dust, that is taking +the attention of our great engineers. + +Here they find room to exert their powers. It is only a year ago that +we had the inauguration of the first great stride; and now we are told +that the thirsty country asks for more. To fully carry out the +perennial irrigation that shall fertilise the two million acres still +waiting, "the country requires one milliard of cubic metres of water per +five hundred thousand acres"--that is to say, four times that quantity. +At the present time, with the height to which it has been already +erected, the Assouan Dam holds up and supplies one milliard of these +cubic metres of water in all, a sufficiency for five hundred thousand +acres of agricultural and garden land. It is proposed to raise it +twenty-one feet higher, with the result that its holding powers will be +so vastly increased that the supply will be doubled, and hence be +sufficient for another five hundred thousand acres. But even then there +will be a milliard acres still waiting for a supply of water to the +extent of two milliards of cubic metres of water for themselves. Whence +is this supply to come? + +The engineers are ready with their answer, and only ask for the capital, +not to float some mad scheme, but to spread bounteously the rich water +which turns, as above said, the desert into fertile land. + +The plan, or project, is to form a huge reservoir in the Wady Rayan, +which will with ease supply the water needed at a cost of about two +million pounds--a large sum of money, but ridiculously small in +comparison with the results. There is, however, a drawback in +connection with this reservoir--a weakness, so to speak, which alone +would render its value questionable, for while in April and May, during +the flood time, its supply would be enormous, it would fall off very +much in June, and furnish but very little in July. + +But now in connection therewith we find the truth of the old proverbial +saying, "Co-operation is strength." Alone it would be weak, but if made +now and worked in connection with the Assouan Reservoir it becomes +strong, and the two being tapped in turn as the need arose, the +combination would have tremendous results, one reservoir so helping the +other that sufficient water could be depended upon to keep up a +perennial supply. + +To give Sir William Willcocks' words: + + Let us now imagine that both reservoirs are full of water, and it is + April 1st. The Wady Rayan Reservoir will be opened on to the Nile and + give all the water needed in that month, while the Assouan Reservoir + will be maintained at its full level. In May the Wady Rayan Reservoir + will give nearly the whole supply, and the Assouan Reservoir will give + a little. In June the Wady Rayan Reservoir will give a small part of + the supply, and the Assouan Reservoir will give the greater part. In + July the Wady Rayan Reservoir will give nothing, and the Assouan + Reservoir will give the whole supply required. Working together in + this harmonious and beautiful manner, these reservoirs, which are the + true complements of each other will easily provide the whole of the + water needed for Egypt. + +Now, this raising of the Assouan Dam to the height proposed means an +expenditure of five hundred thousand pounds, and the time for the +completion of this addition and raising of the works two years, at the +end of which period, as we have seen, its power for irrigation will be +doubled; while to make the additional reservoir, and enable it to +discharge its vast extra supply at the cost named, will take three +years; four years will then be required to bring the water to its proper +height--seven years in all; so that in that time full arrangements can +be made for the perennial irrigation of the whole of Egypt. + +Huge sums of money these to spend or put into the soil, two millions and +a half sterling; but let us see what there is to be said on the credit +side. + +Take one point alone. The increase in the cotton crop of Egypt would be +most extensive, and its value enormous. Then there is the land itself. +Here we have so many extra acres, only partially irrigated, but which by +this raising of the supply of water will be changed from partial supply +land into constant--that is, each acre will be enabled to tap the +reservoirs at all times of the year, according to the cultivator's need, +with the consequent rise in value of the land of thirty pounds per +feddan, or acre; and that means, according to Sir William Willcocks, an +increase in the wealth of Egypt to the extent of sixty million pounds. + +From one bold stroke! Sixty million pounds for the expenditure of five. +Not bad, this, for the engineers. But still, it is but the beginning +of what may be done in the Khedive's country, for it is full of +suggestions to be carried out by an enterprising people for the making +of the native and those of our own country who are prepared to look far +ahead. The amount of land to be reclaimed is enormous; and what land! +For countless ages the Nile has flowed down, bringing with it its +fertile mud, depositing some by the way, carrying other some out to sea, +to be lost in the depths of the Mediterranean; but still, as time rolled +on, adding to, and raising higher, the huge Delta through which the +various mouths made their way; so that in these lowest portions of Egypt +the depth of rich soil must be enormous. + +Here lie the lakes and canals of olden formation, shallowed and choked +with mud, and rendered almost impassable for transit, but only waiting +for the engineers to contrive modern works, the result of survey and +level, feeding canals and the forming of reservoirs to supply irrigation +water for freeing the land of its salt, making easy the navigation of +the district, and simplifying the conveyance of its grain and other +crops. + +All this development is awaiting enterprise and capital low down in the +Delta. But the engineers have not stopped near home and the Khedive's +capital; they have cast their eyes afar across that vast extent of +barbarism, the re-conquered Soudan, where, bordering upon the Nile, it +is often "water, water everywhere, and not a drop" for the crops to +drink. + +Sir William Garstin has been busy here, surveying and examining what can +be done towards and beyond Khartoum. Here rich tracts of fertile land +are lying on both sides of the Blue Nile, to the extent, roughly +speaking, of some three millions of acres. This land of Upper Egypt is +as rich in its capabilities as that of the Delta; but it has qualities +which the latter does not possess, and is more suitable for the +production of excellent cotton, which can be sown as a flood crop and +reaped in winter, an advantage which the seasons will not permit in +Egypt. + +Here, again, then, is an opening for enterprise and capital in the +future, for it must not be forgotten that the Suakin-Berber Railway, +well in progress, opens up this part of the country, one which some of +these days will be brought well in touch with Liverpool and the northern +manufacturing towns, as the cotton-growing capabilities of Upper Egypt +extend. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +In a country which depends upon floods and their deposit for its +fertility, one of the first questions likely to be asked by a practical +man is, What about the drains? He knows perfectly well, from reading +and report, that the evaporation of the waters that have for the time +being turned vast tracts of land literally into swamps must be enormous, +but at the same time some plan for carrying off the superabundant +moisture must be in force. Let him learn at once that in Egyptian +agriculture there are no underground tiled drains in use; but open ones +are formed upon land that requires improving, such as the rice fields +and those which, when cultivation has commenced, are found to be +impregnated with salts, while a great deal is done by the Government, +under whose direction large main cuts are dug to drain off the water on +low-lying lands. + +On the rich soils water may be lying to a depth of four inches after a +flood, but it is so readily absorbed that in six hours none will be left +on the Surface; but infiltration from irrigation canals sometimes +damages the crops alongside, and in such a case as that a small catch +drain will prevent further mischief. + +With regard to irrigation, two systems are carried out, the one peculiar +to Lower Egypt, the other being utilised in Upper. In Lower Egypt the +canal is used for the supply of water to the crops. In Upper Egypt the +manner adopted is technically termed the "basin system." + +In this latter method embankments are formed to enclose tracts of land +well within reach of the Nile flood, which may contain from two thousand +to forty thousand acres, according to the means of, or facilities +offered to, the agriculturist. Afterwards the proceedings are +exceedingly simple. When the inundation is at its greatest height, +openings are made and the water is allowed to flow from the river till +the sandy surface is covered to a depth of six feet. Then the matter, +suspended in the muddy waters, is slowly deposited and goes on sinking +till November, when openings are made into canals, and the water is +allowed to slowly drain off and make its way back into the river, when +the surface of glistening mud that is left is considered ripe for +cultivation, and according to the season may measure perhaps four inches +in depth. + +As soon as the water is gone, the farming operations begin, and in the +simplest and probably the oldest form. There is nothing more to be done +in these cases, no ploughing or harrowing; but wheat, barley, beans, +clover, linseed, and lentils are sown broadcast by the patient +labourers, the sowers often sinking knee deep in the mud as they slowly +plod or almost wade to and fro. The next proceeding is the burying of +the seed, which is generally effected by drawing a large beam of timber +over the muddy surface, though at times, when the consistency is +greater, the seed is covered in by hand-hoeing. That is all, and the +agriculturist leaves the rest for the time being to the efforts of the +sun. Germination soon begins, and rapid growth succeeds in the moist +mud; while these crops do not need or receive any further irrigation +except from rain, which may fall two or three times in the course of +growth. + +But there are times when no rain at all will come to help the crops, +which, however, seem to suffer very little, from the simple fact that +the thorough saturation of the subsoil by the flood, and the constant +gentle evaporation going on, make up to a certain extent for the want of +genial showers, and the failure seems to be confined to the straw alone, +which is shorter than if its growth had been influenced by the dropping +clouds. + +The floods of European lands are, of course, only occasional, accidents +due to a prevalence of storm waters, which the regular rivers and the +artificial drainage of the country have not power to carry off; while +generally they last but a short time, and instead of being beneficial +are destructive. The Nile flow is in every respect the reverse. +Instead of being occasional and of short duration, it is a part of +Nature's routine, and perfectly wondrous in its regularity; while in +place of being temporary, as in the floods of our own islands, we have +here a lasting overflow. + +Again, a flood in the British Islands, where the rivers burst their +banks and spread over meadow-land and arable fields, leaves the soil +soured, sodden, and obnoxious to the plants which are still alive, whole +crops and plantations being often swept away, while those that remain +are on the high road to perishing from rottenness. + +In Egypt the subsoil of sand is ready to absorb, and the ardent sun to +rapidly dry, the surface of the mud as soon as the flood sinks, after +its stay of months; while the rapidity of growth soon makes up for the, +so to speak, dormant state of the cultivated ground that has been +flooded, and, as aforesaid, the water departs, leaving its fertilising +riches behind. Then, as stated, follows without further tilling the +sowing of the crops, which result in abundant growth. This annual +regularity is only marred by the extent of the inundation, which is +calculated and divided by the Egyptians into high flood, mean flood, and +poor flood, according to how far the waters extend when they leave their +natural bed. + +It is calculated that in the first case, when the Nile has reached its +highest point, it has risen to thirty-three feet; in the second case, +the mean flood, thirty feet; and in the third, or poor flood, +twenty-three feet above its bed. As a matter of course, the higher the +flood the wider spread is the inundation, and the deeper the deposit of +fertile mud left upon the land when the river has returned to its +ordinary limits. + +Stay-at-home people are accustomed to look upon Holland as the land of +canals, and the face of this carefully cultivated country is monumental +as a specimen of a nation's industry in cutting waterways for the double +purpose of draining and traffic, while its drains are as admirable as +they are great. Wide tracts of land have been turned from sandy wastes +and swamps into fertile meadows and carefully cultivated fields by the +Dutch engineers, who have also left traces of their handiwork upon the +east coast of England in the drainage of the fens. + +But, leaving the supposed canals of the planet Mars to the imaginations +of astronomers, it is safe to say that Egypt bears off the palm for +works of this description. The ancients knew of their value, and +enormous cuts were made by the help of slave labour, and were left to +survive the rolling away of centuries, and where not duly cared for, and +filled up by the drifting sand, have lain ready to be cleared out, +deepened and brought into use again. These have been added to, till at +the present time it can be said that the system of canals connected with +the main river for the purposes of portage and for perennial irrigation +cannot be equalled anywhere in the world. + +The barrage of the Delta is of incalculable value, since by closing the +sluices the head of water is raised and irrigation made more easy, while +the works of this description lately carried out upon the Nile at +Assiout and Assouan conserve immense bodies of water, which have +formerly flowed regularly down to the sea, carrying with them millions +of tons of fertilising mud or warp, with the equatorial washings of the +rich, untrodden land. This solution of plant-making soil has gone on +downward towards the sea from untold ages, forming by degrees the vast +Delta, beside that which was lost to the service of man, merely choking +up and making shallow the many watercourses into which the Nile waters +have been broken up, and altering the positions of ancient ports and +maritime cities now distant from the sea. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +A good old English gardener once said, "You can't grow things well +without plenty of manure," and this the Egyptians found out years ago. +They have the great advantage of the fertile mud deposited by the river, +but to bring it to its highest state of production land seems to ask for +the crude form of animal plant food as well as the vegetable and +mineral. + +It is to be presumed that there must be a great deal of vegetable +fertilisation swept down by the Nile in a decayed state from the forests +and swamps of Central Africa, but Egypt itself is no land of forests and +that wondrous help to vegetation, leaf mould, may be said to be entirely +absent, while the ordinary animal excreta so carefully collected in most +civilised countries for application to the land is sadly wanted and +neglected here for farm and garden purposes. It is carefully collected, +it is true, and dried; but here, in a country where wood is exceedingly +scarce, it is used for fuel. + +As a rule, the resulting ashes are regarded as of little worth, whereas +they contain, in a mineral form, so many of the constituents of +vegetable life that, if preserved, they would be most valuable. In +fact, the fellaheen look upon the ashes in the same light as they are +regarded here in England, if they are thought of at all, as a coarse +ingredient to mix with a clayey soil to lighten it in the place of sand. +But in these islands there is the excuse that for the most part they +are coal ashes and wanting in fertilising powers. Where they are wood +or vegetable ashes the English cultivator has long known their value +from the extent to which they are impregnated with potash. Still, there +can be no doubt that the ash of the Egyptian fuel, though not returned +to the earth in a well-thought-out and business-like way, does play its +part to some extent in restoring exhausted soil. + +The term "farmyard manure" is common of application, but an English +farmer would look at it in amazement and not know his good old friend +again, for the Egyptian farmyard manure seems to have been invented by +the sanitarians of our dry earth system, being composed of desiccated +Nile mud which has been carefully spread over the floors of the +cattle-sheds as litter wherever bullocks, cows, horses, sheep, etc., are +kept. + +In this fine, dry state, the once mud, now earth, is remarkably +absorbent and sweetening; most healthy, too, for the animals, who are +not seen here trampling nearly knee deep in the soon-made foetid swamp +of a country crew-yard. Moreover the earth is frequently removed--to be +kept lying in the manure heap for about a year to mature, when it is +considered ready for use, and the cattle enclosures and sheds of a farm +are remarkably wholesome and clean. + +This dry mud is one great source of plant food for the farm, but it is +largely supplemented by what the Egyptians term _coufri_, or _sabbakh_. +This is not always available, and depends upon the position of the farm; +but there are parts of the Delta where, to all appearance, the tract +being reclaimed or taken up for bringing into cultivation is so much +level, or nearly level, land, with a mound or slight elevation here and +there where the winds have drifted the sand apparently to a considerable +depth. Except to the eye of the experienced there is nothing to show +that flourishing cities and villages have existed there in the past; but +many of these slight elevations are the sites where teeming populations +once existed, and all has gone back, with some few exceptions--dust to +dust. The exceptions are where the spade of the fellah comes upon the +remains of a tomb or priestly edifice, these, as is well-known, being +the lasting part of man's work, which are being discovered constantly +even now, with their builders', sculptors', and painters' handiwork +looking, when the sand has been removed, almost as fresh and uninjured +as if they were the traces of two or three generations back instead of +having been buried many centuries ago. + +These solid remains, or ruins, may be comparatively few; but in all +probability have been surrounded by an enormous population, whose +houses, originally built of the sun-dried Egyptian brick, have in the +course of time gone back, like everything animal that surrounded them, +to a rough earth ready for the worker's spade, which digs up from an +almost inexhaustible mine--with nothing to tell of the past but a few +broken shards--a splendid fertiliser for the farm. + +But this _coufri_ manure requires discrimination in its use, too strong +an application being likely to prove hurtful to a crop, seeing that +analysis shows that its plant-feeding qualities are due to the salts it +contains--sometimes as much as 12 per cent, of salt, soda, ammonia, +saltpetre, phosphates, and the like. + +The value to an English farmer of such a mine of artificial chemical +manure as this may be conceived, and it would make the eyes brighten of +one here who strengthens his land by applications of marl, or else has +to content himself with a top dressing of chalk from some pit sunk in a +corner of his holding. + +Fairly plentiful still in Egypt, there must, of course, be a limit to +this supply. The taking up of land is going steadily on, and +consequently the remains of city after city have been and are being +rapidly used up, thus necessitating the establishment of plans upon a +practical basis for the restoration of land which should not be +exhausted by heavy crops without the cultivator making a proper return. +One of our students of agriculture, in a public address, deals largely +with the necessity for the dissemination of a practical knowledge of the +needs of the land. He speaks of the great waste of fertilising matter +in the way in which the refuse stalks of two of the greatest crops of +the Delta--cotton and sugar-cane--are burned in the furnaces of engines, +for which purpose they are most valuable when it is taken into +consideration that fuel wood is a rarity and coal a luxury of exorbitant +price. + +But after burning, so ignorant have the people been, that the tons upon +tons in the aggregate of this rich ash from the engine fires which +consume the refuse of the enormous crops of sugar-cane annually grown, +have been looked upon as comparatively valueless, in spite of the fact +that the ash contains almost all that is required for the growth of so +exhaustive a crop, and it has been either cast away or sold for a +trifle, to be used up in the manufacture of bricks. He adds, in words +full of pregnant meaning, that even the fertile alluvium of the Nile +Valley cannot long sustain this treatment without exhaustion, in spite +of the much that is done by the feeding off and ploughing in of the +leguminous crops, which play a great part in giving back what has been +taken away. + +Farms here, too, are often found with a large dovecote, as alluded to in +the description of the Khedive's estates; for the Egyptian cultivator +has a fine substitute for the guano of the Peruvian Chincha Islands in +that of the pigeons which are kept in flocks for the sake of this strong +fertiliser. Undoubtedly they must take severe toll from the crops, +whether green or fit for harvesting, though perhaps this is +counterbalanced by the fact that the birds must gain a good subsistence +upon the grain that would be wasted or go back to the soil, so much +being shed at ingathering time in consequence of the heat. + +This carefully-saved fertiliser is used by the Egyptian for applying to +vegetables and such productions as water melons and other plants of the +gourd family, which depend much for their size on stimulation. + +The application of special commercial manures to Egyptian crops may be +said to be still in the experimental stage. On the richest and most +fertile soils they are not required, but on the poorer soils their +effect is very apparent. For the cotton crop, superphosphate and +nitrate of soda, in the proportion of 3 to 4 hundredweights +superphosphate to 1.25 hundredweight nitrate of soda, mixed and applied +to an acre, give a profitable return in an increased yield of cotton. +Other manures, such as potash, have been tried, but did not prove +satisfactory. Sulphate of ammonia and nitrate of soda give good results +on poor land if applied to the wheat crop. As not more than half enough +farmyard manure can be produced on large estates for fertilising the +various crops, attention will be turned to chemicals should they prove +to be profitable after exhaustive experiments. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +After what has been written about the water navigation of this country, +a few words may be said respecting the means of conducting the land +traffic. In the past the great river and its Delta mouths, supplemented +by the canals, formed the main roads for the conveyance of produce. Now +the iron track has begun to make its way, and the long creeping trains +of trucks and carriages may be seen gliding over the plain, drawn by the +mighty power of old George Stephenson's invention, though in this hot +country the familiar trail of soft whitish grey vapour is often wanting, +dying out at once as it does in the rays of the ardent sun. In +addition, Egypt is being treated as Britain was some two thousand years +ago by the Romans, who well grasped the value of a good trunk road, and +while those were formed for military purposes and the holding in check +of the subject race, these in connection with the Khedive's peaceful +rule and for the advance of agriculture are devoted to the carrying of +produce from market to market, or to some railway station, and this, +too, at much less cost than in the olden days, when most of the grain +was borne from the place of its growth upon camel back, or slung in bags +on either side of the patient, vigorous, and handsome donkeys which are +raised in this country. + +A correspondent of the _Morning Post_ writes: + + While Upper Egypt is nowhere more than a fertile strip, bordered by + two deserts, the comparatively large area of the Delta, its + intersection by a multitude of canals, and the absence of a large + system of metalled roads, have long rendered necessary an improvement + of communications in the interest both of the fellaheen and of the + European or Levantine landowners. Agricultural roads offer but a + partial solution of the difficulties caused by these conditions; + donkeys, mules, and camels are still highly useful, and will long be + extensively used for the transport of commodities over a short + distance, or in cases where time is no object to the transporter; but + it is unnecessary to dilate on the defects of animal compared with + mechanical transport. Branches of the Nile and the canals which in + the maps cover the Delta with such a network of blue lines are also of + great value, but the number of canals which are perennially navigable + is limited, and the canal barge is nowhere renowned for speed, while + sailing boats cannot use certain canals at all in the dry season, and + their use of others is often attended by the risk of grounding. + +_En passant_, Mr Wallace mentions a singular fact in connection with +the making of the trunk roads. In Europe we are accustomed to see them +kept as level as is consistent with the cost of making, and raised above +the level while provided with proper drains to carry off the too +abundant water. Here it has been found that to give the road much rise +above the surrounding levels is a mistake, in consequence of the large +amount of salt the unredeemed districts contain. The salt rises to the +surface, forming an efflorescence as in the American plains, and +especially in the stiff lands it has a tendency to interfere with the +ways of nature, where the particles adhere together, causing them to +fall apart in the shape of dust, which is one of the objectionable +features of an Egyptian road. + +Anyone who has read about Egypt will recall matters full of suggestion +of likely difficulties regarding the keeping open of a road, while those +who have travelled through the country have much to say about the +prevalence of dust. How many discoveries in the past have been made of +wondrous relics that have lain buried for ages covered in deeply--and +preserved--by the drifting dust or sand! And, with regard to this +drifting, attention has been drawn by Mr Wallace, in his agricultural +address, to a singular physical fact in connection with the shifting of +the sand. This might be expected to follow, on the whole, the course of +the prevailing winds, and be carried mainly in their direction; but +there are singular variations, probably due to local waves or currents +of air near the surface of the earth. + +In one considerable portion of the land of Goshen the sand is swept from +south to north, while in another part, along the west bank of the Nile, +at the north of Cairo, its direction is from east to west. But a great +deal of the raising and drifting of the finer portions of the earth is +dependent upon whether the wind be moisture-laden or the reverse. If +the air be moist, a breeze blowing at the rate of, say, four miles an +hour from the north will have no effect upon the deep dust, while one +from the arid south, possessed of about half the other's force, will +raise the almost impalpable soil in clouds. + +But, as elsewhere, now that Egypt is awakening from her long slumber, +the sand is giving way to the soil. + +The correspondent of the _Morning Post_ gives some very terse and +exhaustive accounts of the railway system now extending through the +Delta, and dwells upon the fact that the agricultural light railways-- +similar to the one mentioned earlier in these pages, made by the Khedive +to his estates near Cairo--have been a distinct success, and he goes on +to say that: + + The broad-gauge State railways of the Egyptian Delta may be roughly + compared with the sticks of a fan. Converging at Cairo, the + headquarters of the railway administration, and the goal of the + provincial lines, the railways diverge to Alexandria, to Dessouk in + the north of the Delta, on the Rosetta branch of the Nile, to + Damietta, to Salahieh in the north-east, and to Ismailia. Several + lines link the important towns on these branches; for example, + Mansourah is connected with the Salahieh line, and a railway along the + coast connects Alexandria and Rosetta; but large areas, notably in the + crowded Menoufieh Province, in Beherah, and in the north-east of the + Delta, lacked facilities for rapid transmission of goods and + passengers to the larger towns served by the State lines until the + advent of the agricultural railways. It would be unnecessary and + unprofitable to enumerate all the agricultural lines which have been + constructed in the last few years. Their distribution may be + understood if, returning to the fan metaphor, they are regarded as + threads running between and generally connecting the diverging sticks + of the fan of State lines. + +So successful have these lines been that applications have been made for +permission regarding the construction of fresh railways to extend in +various directions for over another three hundred miles, most of these +being in the Menoufieh Province, where desert land is being reclaimed. +Mr Gunn's report gives the mileage covered since 1896, when the +concessions were granted: + +In 1897 there were fifty-four miles of railway open, in 1899 430 miles, +and in 1902 673. Within a year or two there will be at least one +thousand miles open for traffic. + +And, by the way, one of the principal uses made of these lines of rails +is for the conveyance of the ancient deposits of _sabbakh_ or _coufri_ +from district to district--the rich fertiliser to the comparatively +barren lands--the old-world traces of civilisation to the new, to parts +of Egypt which have been written down for ages as desert, but which are +now found to become great suppliers of produce that can be easily +consigned to the many markets opening up at home and abroad. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +Without doubt the Delta is a splendid region for settlement for any +young agriculturist who possesses health, energy, and a natural tendency +towards those industrious habits peculiar to the successful men of our +country, who have always been willing to metaphorically and really take +off their coats and do whatever is necessary by way of example. To +succeed in Egypt we must take it for granted that he possesses moderate +means, or, say, very moderate means, just sufficient to make a small +commencement by hiring; or, far better, by the purchase of land, which +can now safely be done with good legal security and at a price that +before long will in all probability bound upwards to double or even +quadruple its present figure. But the thoroughly good sterling advice +of the authority already quoted--advice similar in nature has often been +before given to intending settlers in Australia--is that a year at least +should first be spent in gaining a knowledge of the country, while +learning a sufficiency of the common language to enable a man to direct +the labourers who will be under him in their field work. And, what is +of equal importance, the intending settler, however great may have been +his experience, should be ready to cast aside prejudice in favour of his +own preconceived opinions, and studiously take note of why this or that +course is followed out by old cultivators; he must learn that amidst a +great deal of chaff that he may cast aside there are many grains of good +sound wheat--otherwise, excellent dearly bought bits of experience. +_Festina lente_ is a grand old Roman proverb, and the newcomer to Egypt +will gain in the end by not being in too great a hurry to start. + +Unlike the British farmer, the agriculturist in Egypt has at hand an +abundant supply of labour. Housed in the mud huts or sun-dried brick +houses adjoining the estates, the labourer is at all hours ready to +respond to the demand. He receives one or two acres of land let at a +reduced rental; he is a day labourer only, and can absent himself at +pleasure to attend to his craft. His wage varies from sixpence to +tenpence per day of ten hours in summer and eight hours in winter. He +provides his own food. + +In disposition this peasant is contented, good-natured, not resentful, +and of good physique. He is also very untruthful, unreliable at his +work, lazy, cunning, and unconscionable as to the quality and quantity +of the task he is put to--in short, a thorough eye-servant. He requires +constant supervision, when he will do good work under a trying sun. He +promises fair, but performs badly. If he commits a fault and is +questioned as to how it happened, one can invariably depend upon his +telling an untruth. When working on his own plot he is most diligent, +but his methods are not always the best, and he does not get the full +benefit from the soil, owing to want of intelligence as to the rules of +good husbandry. On a large estate, should extra hands be wanted for a +special occasion, a hundred to two hundred men can be had on one night's +notice being given--a delightful state of affairs in cases of emergency, +though here the farmer does not often suffer from his hay or corn crops +being unharvested through the redundance of rain. + +A large percentage of the fellaheen are perfectly illiterate, which +accounts for their want of readiness to take up the initiative. They +have no thirst for knowledge and love in agricultural matters to keep +running in the old rut. Exactness, tidiness, and pride in his work are +qualities very rarely found in a fellah. Slovenliness in the +performance of duties is characteristic of the paid day labourer, and to +a lesser degree when working on his own account. In Britain, for +instance, where do we find the breeder of stock who excels his +neighbours except in the shrewd farmer who, at great trouble and study, +and by patient experimenting, attains to success? Not only so, but he +is like the leaven which leaveneth the whole lump by raising the +standard of a district. The apathy of the fellah is shown in the lack +of breeding in horses, cattle, and sheep in Egypt, which is due to want +of selecting suitable sires, care in rearing, and the like. + +The soil responds to thorough tillage in a marked degree, but too little +care is bestowed upon this question of cultivation, as the fellah is +prone to scamp his work and leave part of his land solid--that is, not +thoroughly stirred. When exposed to the sun the soil cracks and opens +into fissures, sometimes as wide as five inches. The fellah is often, +too, careless in providing a good bed for the seed, and irregular +germination is the result. If the land is judiciously watered and +timeously ploughed in a friable condition, it can be brought to a fine +tilth without much extra trouble. As it is all soil--nothing in the +shape of a bad subsoil exists, as in some parts of Great Britain--deep +cultivation is thoroughly beneficial, bringing, as it does, unexhausted +soil to the top. Generally in the preparation of the land for the +cotton crop, with its deep-searching roots, a depth of twelve inches is +attained. + +Doubtless much of the apathy of the labouring man amongst the fellaheen +is due, as in the case of the rice-feeding Hindoo, to his being to so +great an extent a vegetarian. With him the staff of life consists +principally of an exceedingly hard kind of bread, baked almost to +biscuit, and composed of maize, or dourra, the small-grained millet; and +the result of the fellaheen housewife's efforts in this kind of food +preparation necessitates dipping or soaking in water before the bread +can be partaken of at a meal. + +But in such a splendid garden land as Egypt, where cultivated produce +attains maturity at so rapid a rate, and where with careful management +and such a spring and summer-like climate two or even three crops of +vegetables can be obtained in a year, it may easily be supposed that the +peasant can provide himself with a constant supply of green food; and he +certainly takes advantage of his position, indulging freely in the +ordinary vegetables common in the gardens of the West, and supplementing +them with the delicious green maize so popular with the American people. + +This latter grain is one of the staple foods, when it has come to +maturity, of the inhabitants of the Delta. It is ground into a coarse +flour, and mingled with a small proportion of barley; while in addition, +to give flavour and a slight stimulus to the digestive organs which are +brought to bear upon one of the hardest grains in assimilation, a small +portion of the peculiar clover-like, many-seeded plant, fenugreek, is +added. + +Maize gives place to a great extent in Upper Egypt to millet or dourra +amongst the poorer orders; but the better-class work-people, who earn +much higher wages than the agricultural labourer, are now taking to the +general use of wheaten bread. + +Although the ordinary fellah partakes of so simple a diet, and may be +wanting in energy, loving as he does to glide through life in the same +old groove that was formed by his forefathers, he is a well-built, +healthy, muscular individual, and is not to be beaten by any coolie as a +worker under a torrid sun. Much of his work consists of raising water +for irrigation, and if statistics could be produced as to the number of +gallons that he sends trickling amongst the roots of the crop, or +moistening the land previously in their preparation, ordinary figures +would almost fail. Suffice it to say that it is immense. Even now he +clings often of necessity to the old, old shadoof--that which is +represented in the engraving--which, in spite of its Egyptian name, is +only our old friend of the suburban brickfield, a long pole balanced +upon a post in scale beam fashion, with a bucket at one end of the pole, +a weight at the other, equal to that of the water which is raised from +somewhere below for pouring into a receptacle, ready to be dipped again, +perhaps, and sent higher by means of another shadoof farther up. + +The worker of this primitive water distributer, in his cotton robe, is +one of the commonest objects seen upon the banks. The photograph well +depicts the sturdy fellah at his task. In addition, there is the +old-world sakieh, a much more complicated affair; for here, in the past, +primitive ingenuity turned its hand to mechanical construction, and +produced after much toil the manual labour-saving and ox- or +buffalo-enlisting water-wheel, working after the fashion of one of our +river dredges, but clumsy of the clumsy, and having, in place of the +metal scoops, so many earthenware pots, held in their places to the +periphery of the water-wheel by as many cords, as will be seen in the +engraving. Still, it is effective in its way, and the yoked oxen which +supply the motive power that turns the heavy wheels raise vast +quantities of water year after year. The sakieh is quaint, old-world, +and picturesque, and it has served its purpose so well, for who can say +how far back in the past, that it never seems to have occurred to the +lower order of Egyptian mind that any improvement could be made. That +has been left to the West, and now that under the present progressive +forward movement of Egyptian agriculture European, and especially +British, water-raising and distributing machines are being utilised, the +fate of the sakieh seems to be that sooner or later it will merely live +to be spoken of as a curiosity, only seen in some artist's +representation of the past. + +The fellah's habitation has not varied with the years; as in antiquity, +so now. The primitive clay hut is simplicity itself. As it is figured +in the quaint tomb pictures, so it is to-day in the suburbs and +villages--its furniture a wooden chest or two, its cooking utensils a +few earthen pots. But his hut is principally his sleeping place, for +his life is pretty well passed beneath the broad canopy of heaven. He +rises with the dawn to begin his day's work at the plough, or to handle +his heavy hoe. At another time the demands of the crops for water or +for the mud-laden fertilising contents of the great stream, take him to +the shadoof or to guide the bullock or buffalo turning the water-wheel. + +As elsewhere, the fellah's wife is the soul of his humble home. She +toils busily and patiently through the duties of her little domestic +centre, cares for her elders, cooks, and finds time to feed the cattle +and collect the sun-dried fuel from off the parched soil, to come back +marching homeward, strong and statuesque, bearing the piled-up basket +upon her head; while it is she who, while her lord is busily lowering +and raising the shadoof, descends knee deep into the river or canal to +fill the great, heavy, amphora-like earthen pot and then bear it back to +her home, classically picturesque in her drapery as she balances the +clumsy vessel upon shoulder or head, and bears the life-giving fluid +onward with a steady, easy swing. It is she who makes the dourra, or +maize bread, and shapes and stitches the cotton clothing, which is the +only wear of all her circle. Unlike her sister of the city, she does +not shrink so much from the gaze of the other sex, but still to some +extent keeps up the tradition; though wearing no veil she will hold up a +portion of her drapery at the coming of the passer-by, or perhaps only +place her hand before her mouth. + +Woman-like, in spite of her menial toil, she believes in personal care, +and her long black hair is carefully dressed and glistens with Palma +Christi oil. She paints, too, as of old, the marks appearing upon her +chin and forehead, while a string of attractive glass beads decorates +and hangs suspended from her neck. + +The olden Egyptian costume is that principally affected by the fellah. +It consists of a closely-fitting cap of felt or cotton and a long robe +of the latter material, deeply dyed of an indigo blue. Shirt and +drawers are of the same material, while in some cases a young buck +amongst his people will adorn himself, like Joseph of old, in a vest of +many colours, borrowed from the Arab, the Persian, or the Turk. As +above intimated, the fellah believes in a life of leisure, and finds it +rather difficult to make the first start at his daily toil. + +In the olden days the lot of the fellah was not quite so happy as it +might have been. He suffered from enforced labour, and does not seem to +have had much chance of appeal. But he had one notable thing in his +favour, for a river when in flood is subject to having huge portions of +its banks undermined and swept away in a state of muddy solution; and, +as was frequently the case, the peasant cultivator, who for the sake of +the irrigation had his holding as near the bank as he could contrive to +get, was often a great sufferer, being in the possession before the +flood of a considerable strip of cultivated land, while after the +inundation it was a minus quantity, leaving him to begin life again. +Here, however, the law of the land was very equitable upon his behalf, +giving him liberty to go either up or down stream to select an equal +quantity of the land he had lost that was new and unappropriated, and no +one said him nay. + +And now, thanks to the just and easy state of the Government, the native +working Egyptian is far better off with regard to his condition than he +appears to have been at any time in the past. Prosperity surrounds him, +and the lesser holders of land, say of from four to ten feddans or +acres, rapidly grow well-to-do and distance the larger proprietors. The +extent now of the land under cultivation is vastly in excess of what it +was. The people are growing more energetic--those of the better class-- +and are learning fast, while the spirit of emulation is increasing +amongst them as they waken up to what modern civilisation will achieve. +Their Government, too, is working hard on their behalf, a college having +been established at Ghizeh for the purpose of instructing the sons of +native landowners and of the working fellaheen class in more advanced +agriculture, fitting them in the knowledge necessary for the prosecution +of agriculture according to the best forms, the proper rotations of +crops, selections of fertilisers, natural and chemical, and, above all, +stockbreeding and all that has been learned of late in connection with +the dairy. + +In brief, much as has been said of the Egypt of the past being the +garden of the world, it bids fair to become in the future so great a +contrast that old Egypt will pale into insignificance in the bright +light of the new. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +*Horses*.--There are no heavy horses used here, such as the Shire or +Clydesdale, as the ploughing is done by oxen. The Arab horses--or they +might be classed as ponies--measure from fourteen to fourteen and a half +hands high. They are not of great substance, but light in the bone, +leggy, narrow-chested, though sure-footed and hardy. + +Horse breeding is not attended with much success, as regards the +production of high-class stock, and re-mounts for the Army and Police +have to be purchased in Syria. The stories one reads while at school +about the Arab and his steed receive a rude shock when one witnesses the +unmerciful way in which the Arab overloads and whips his horses. They +are not true horsemen, a fact which is apparent in their methods of +training horses to harness. + +The Government has supplied stud horses to various districts to try and +improve the breed. On the farm horses are used for carting, etc. They +are fed on barley and broken straw (_tibn_), the former a bad form of +provender for the horse, unless its harshness be ameliorated by +crushing. + +*Cattle*.--The work-bullocks are strong, docile animals, and do the +ploughing, threshing, raising water, etc. One pair is yoked to a +plough. Four pairs are sufficient to work a farm of one hundred acres. +Their daily feed is nine pounds of beans and twenty-five pounds of +straw. The beans are split, and are eaten uncooked. + +Most estates have to purchase their oxen, as very few cows are kept for +breeding purposes. The fellaheen keep one or two, and rear the young +bulls. Where the soil is richest the cattle are best. In summer the +fellah allows his young stock to get into poor condition, and this has +an effect on their growth. He has--amongst many other things--still to +learn about early maturity. Within recent years work-bullocks have +risen enormously in price, owing to more butcher's meat being consumed +by the fellaheen and the European visitors. The price of a pair of good +bullocks is 45 pounds at the age of four years. These cattle resemble +those of the Channel Islands, but are larger. They are very often +deficient in depth of rib and chest measurement, hollow-backed, and +narrow across the loins, as well as leggy, and they show want of +strength of forearm. These are some of the defects which may be +eradicated by care in selecting, mating, etc. + +Cows are kept and bred from by the fellaheen, who rear the young bulls, +while, as we have seen, the cows are used for ploughing. They are not a +breed of deep milkers, but the milk is rich in butter fat, 5 per cent, +being common; and sixteen pounds of milk will give two pounds of cream, +or one pound of butter, which is in demand at from 1 shilling 6 pence to +2 shillings per pound. + +Crossing with European bulls has been tried lately, with a measure of +success. Some idea of the characters of these animals may be gathered +by comparing the illustrations representing both buffalo and ordinary +bull with the experimental cross-bred animals reared upon the Khedivial +farms. It has been found that crosses between Fribourg bulls (Swiss) +and native cows improve the milking qualities and also produce an animal +with better points of breeding, without diminishing the usefulness for +draught purposes. Fine specimens are to be seen at the present time +upon the Khedive's farms. A practice common to the country is that when +the cow is milked her calf is tied up beside her and allowed afterwards +to partake of its share. If this rule be not observed, the cow will not +give up her milk. + +*Buffaloes*.--Large specimens of these peculiar and useful animals have +been bred upon the Khedive's stock farm, great enterprise having been +exercised for the purposes of improvement both as draught animals and +for dairy purposes. One of the sires is a magnificent bull lately +brought by his Highness's orders from the Soudan. Both bulls and cows +are yoked for farm labour in the fields, while the latter, as dairy +stock, are in great favour, their milk being richer in butter-producing +qualities than that of the ordinary dairy cow of Europe. Eleven pounds +of buffalo milk will churn one pound of butter, but the quality is not +so good, being pale in colour, and oily. The yield of milk per +twenty-four hours is about thirty pounds. + +*Donkeys*.--Unlike the despised donkey of England, the ass of Egypt is +one of the most useful of animals. It is a hardy, patient +burden-bearer, but very often ill-treated, notwithstanding its good +services. It is employed on the farm for carrying manure in bags slung +across the back, and is largely used for the saddle. A well-bred, +generously treated donkey is often of a goodly size. + +*Mules*.--These are employed for carting, raising water, and other farm +work. They are very strong and useful. + +*Sheep*.--Egypt is not a pastoral country, and but scant attention is +paid to these animals. They are considered a sort of by-product. When +attention is paid to them, however, they yield excellent profit. The +ram lambs at five months sell at from sixteen to twenty shillings. No +care is bestowed on selection, and breeding from "weedy" rams renders +the stock deficient in quality. The duties of the shepherd are light, +as the flock is always under his eye at pastures. A very good idea of +the Egyptian sheep can be gathered from the illustration. + +But the time is rapidly approaching when all this may be changed; for +sheep-farming may be looked upon from its double advantage of their +increasing popularity for food purposes and their value for the +extension of a system of animal manuring, and thus supplying, by feeding +off crops, one of the great wants of the country. To a great extent the +poor class Egyptian has been a vegetarian, but, with the increase of +riches and prosperity in the country, Mr Wallace in his address speaks +of the growing demand for animal food, especially mutton; while he +reminds his listeners that one of the ways in which an Arab honours his +guest is by furnishing his feast with a whole roast lamb. + +The Prophet Mohammed, in his sanitary laws to his followers, teaches +them to partake of mutton, in his wisdom and knowledge of its +superiority to the flesh of the ox, which is considered unclean, +pointing to the fact that even in his day cattle were known to be +affected with some form of tuberculosis, which might possibly be eaten +and thus imparted to the unfortunate partaker of the unwholesome food. + +A special choice of site for sheep-farming is necessary, as a matter of +course; but portions of the country may easily be selected where they +can be kept with advantage--in the Nubarea, for instance. For not only +is the land itself undergoing change in its nature, but politically as +well. Under the present form of government and the protection to the +cultivator which has been the natural result, the farmer is becoming +freed from the risks of the past; for, unfortunately, in consequence of +a certain inborn notion that has existed among the native Egyptian that +everything he covets may be annexed, it has been found absolutely +necessary by the grower of sheep to keep an exceedingly sharp eye over +his tempting flocks, which have had to be dealt with as if they were in +an enemy's land. Driven into folds at night, this has not been +sufficient; for as there is a want here of that breed of savage dogs +fostered for their protection by the Albanian shepherds, the Egyptian +shepherd has to be supplemented by watchmen ready to stand sentry over +the flocks by night. + +Sheep feeding progresses well during the time of the growing crops; but +as these pass away, that form of farming and feeding which may be looked +upon as quite modern in its application has proved most advantageous to +the keeper of sheep: we mean the plan which agitated the public mind to +so great an extent a decade or two back--ensilage--when our country rang +with reports of experimental building of costly silos, or the sinking in +suitable places of cement-lined tanks in which the newly-cut crops of +green cattle food were piled or stacked, rammed down for preservation, +and made into what one facetious writer stigmatised as "cattle jam." +The idea of the inexperienced was that this treatment of the green grass +or clover would result either in rotting or fermentation, with +spontaneous combustion to follow, as in the case of a too hurriedly made +hay or corn rick in a moist harvest time. But the operations of Nature +are as wondrous as they are puzzling, and it was found in our own +country that the crop preserved in its silo could be kept for a +reasonable length of time, and then cut out in an appetising state, +ready for the cattle in a season of scarcity. + +Answering so well in Europe, with its frequent rains and superabundant +moisture, it is bound to be successful in comparatively rainless Egypt, +where the clover can be cut at the exact necessary period and kept ready +for use as required--a fact which is likely to give a great impetus to +sheep-raising in such a pastureless country as the Delta. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +There is every probability of a small capitalist, one who might begin +with almost nothing besides so much land and a sufficiency to tide +himself over the first few months, making a fair success by the +establishing of a poultry farm. In England we are favoured every year +with reports of the trials that have been made in this branch of +farming; and as a rule it seems that bad weather, the cold, and the cost +of keeping, run away with most of the profits. Indeed, the writer's +experience points to the fact that few as yet have made a satisfactory +living by keeping fowls in this rainy island, while up to the present +day our supplies are kept up by the chickens and eggs taken into market +from ordinary farms, or collected by hucksters from the cottages over +wide districts. + +This applies as much to France as to England, for we are indebted to the +former country for millions of the eggs with which the metropolis is +supplied. + +In Egypt, where there is plenty of room and abundant sunshine, fowls +might be much improved by the choice of suitable kinds, while some +management would be required as to the means of feeding, though one +suggestion may be made that, if adopted, ought to prove of great +assistance to the fowl and egg farmer. + +There is one peculiarity in the growing of grain in Egypt, and this is +noticeable in the harvesting, the heat of the sun being so great that +the corn of various kinds ripens with such rapidity that if much of it +be not cut down and carried in the comparative coolness of the night +much of it is shed in the fields and is wasted. Here is a great +opportunity for the poultry farmer, or the farmer who merely keeps a few +fowls in connection with his general cultivation; for at such times, in +a country where double crops prolong the harvest, great numbers of +poultry in kinds would be self-feeding, and far superior in quality to +many that are brought into the Cairene and Alexandrian markets. + +Still, at the present time the occupation has been much improved, for +not only are the native markets supplied, but exportation of eggs is on +the increase. Far off as Egypt may be, the metropolis is to some extent +supplied with its produce, but to nothing like the extent that should be +the case, for the London egg merchants will not buy "mummies," which is +the cant term for Egyptian eggs, save for about two months in the year, +when the European supplies are scarce. + +This fact--one which is well worthy the attention of poultry farming +aspirants--is entirely the fault of the Egyptian grower, for the London +merchants' complaint is perfectly justifiable. It is this--that the +Egyptian eggs are exceedingly small, and so badly packed for transit by +those who seem thoroughly ignorant of the proverbial fact that "eggs are +eggs," that the breakage is enormous, while the entire loss falls on the +agents. + +Similar complaints used to be made regarding the eggs imported into +Europe from Morocco and Algiers, but here those connected with the trade +have woke up to their shortcomings and introduced better fowls--the +layers of larger eggs--and have also given greater attention to the +packing of this exceedingly brittle merchandise. Hence the result has +been most satisfactory, and the trade has rapidly increased. Egypt +being, then, in much the same latitude as Morocco and Algiers, there is +no reason whatever why the former country should not improve its +production of poultry so as to vastly increase the demand by raising the +quality of its supplies. + +Physiologists seem very much behindhand in accounting for the terrible +destruction which comes upon countries from time to time. Africa, the +ancient home of plagues, is only now recovering from that frightful +devastation which affected grazing animals, the wild as severely as the +domesticated. From south to north this great portion of the globe was +swept by the Teutonically-named Rinderpest. Cattle of all kinds, and +the droves of antelope-like creatures which roamed the wilds, perished +almost like vegetation before the hot, sweeping blast of a volcano or +forest fire. And, though little known outside, Northern Africa has had +a trouble that seems to have been special to domesticated birds, a fact +which shows that poultry farming in Egypt is not all _couleur de rose_, +and that he who would venture upon such a pursuit enjoys no immunity +from risks, but must take his chance with the vegetable and fruit +growers who, like those in other countries, have their difficulties to +face. + +One visitation was productive recently of terrible devastation amongst +fowls. This was not the familiar "gapes" of the British poultry-yard, +but is described as a kind of cholera, so bad that villages have been +losing their entire stock, with the natural consequence that the market +prices of poultry and eggs have greatly increased--charges, in fact, +having doubled and even trebled. Experiments have been tried in the +investigation of the disease and the manner of treating it, but so far +the only successful way of dealing with the trouble seems to have been +by isolation. + +But there appears to be every probability of the disease proving only of +a temporary nature, and that the production of poultry will be as easy, +simple, and remunerative as of old; for, as may easily be understood, +poultry farming is bound to be of vast importance in a hot country. +Every traveller recalls what a staple food a so-called chicken is in the +West Indies; while in the vast plains of India almost every native +cottage has its fowls to meet the demand of an enormous consumption. Of +the quality the less said the better. The aim of the possessor of a +poultry-yard in Western Europe is to produce a plump, square, +so-to-speak, solid fowl, broad and full of breast. The Indian bird +seems to have been gifted by Nature--in merciful consideration of its +being, like most gallinaceous birds, short and hollow of wing and a bad +flier, and also of its having to run for its life to escape immolation +and consumption--with an abundance of skinny leg, and it never seems to +have occurred to the ryot that he might improve the breed. + +Even in civilised Egypt there is much to be done in this direction, and +an ample field is open to the poultry farmer to improve the quality of +the fowl, with success attending him if he will be content to go +watchfully to work and make his experiments upon a sound basis, without +being too ready to look with contempt upon the experience-taught native +ways. + +One thing is worthy of remark for the benefit of the would-be poultry +farmer, and that is in connection with the marketing, for it is almost a +rule that no one in Egypt buys a dead fowl. In Western Europe, of +course, the common practice is to send the fatted chickens for sale +plucked and neatly trussed. In Egypt it is different, from the fear +lest it should have died from natural causes. The result of this style +of vendition is the repellent way in which poultry are hawked about the +streets of the town, raising feelings for the need of more +prevention-of-cruelty-to-animals establishments, though it would be hard +work to interfere with a custom which has a good deal of reason on its +side, for, waiving the possibilities of purchasing a bird that may have +been killed by accident, or possibly have died from disease, climatic +reasons must be taken into consideration. Egypt is at times intensely +hot, and, whatever may be the fancies of epicures in connection with +game, the gourmet has yet to be found with a preference for having his +chickens "high." + +Still, as aforesaid, there is something repellent in the way in which +the doomed birds are treated. In England a Prevention officer soon +summons the huckster who overcrowds his poultry in a crate and does not +supply them with food or water; but in Egypt it is one of the common +objects of the streets to see a bunch of fowls tied together by the legs +and swinging from the vendor's hand, wearily curving up their necks so +as to get their heads in the normal position, while every now and then a +case may be found where the seller finds that he requires refreshment +and callously throws his load upon the ground, while in Eastern fashion +he takes his seat at a _cafe_ to sip his cup and smoke a cigarette. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +In such a climate as has been described Egypt offers every inducement +for the planting of fruit trees that are likely to flourish under its +ardent sun. Attempts have been made, and with fair success, but the +raising of fruit has not reached that state of excellence warranted by +fertility and the conditions of the climate. Examination very soon +shows the reasons for this lack of prosperity, which is clearly the +fault of the Egyptian gardener in his want of system, his easy, careless +indifference, and his clinging to the old-fashioned way of planting a +fruit tree, namely, placing it in a hole in the ground and leaving it to +itself. + +The first things that strike observers in visiting Egyptian gardens are +the overcrowding of the trees, the neglect of precautions to keep them +free from weeds, and in many cases the marked absence of pruning dealt +out judiciously by one who knows a fruit tree and its needs--plenty of +light and air, the removal of cross growth, and the fostering of bearing +wood, here frequently injured by rank growth. + +Then, again, the Egyptian gardener is as obstinate and conservative as +his prototype in the western counties of England, who leaves his ancient +apple-trees of the orchard to grow one into the other and become covered +with grey lichen, while he religiously avoids the replacing of old and +unprofitable trees by young ones. + +The result of experience is--and the knowledge of what the land will do +makes it certain--that in the following out of this defective system may +be traced the want of quality, flavour, and quantity of some Egyptian +fruits. + +Of these it must be remembered that the settler and commencer of their +cultivation would have to deal with several that are new to him in the +way of growing, as well as those of the cooler parts of Europe. + +Egypt suggests to the reader the ancient civilisation, with its +pyramids, temples, and other monuments of its old-time grandeur, the +great river, and, above all, the desert; but to come back from these to +the simple and ordinary pursuit of gardening, the settler would be able +to surround himself, as in California and Florida, but without the +bitter disappointments produced by frosts, with several varieties of the +golden apples of the Hesperides--oranges, to wit--the sweet, the bitter, +the deeply tinted blood orange, and the mandarin. All of them grow well +in Lower Egypt, and produce beautiful and profitable crops of fruit, as +may be judged by the following. The sweet and mandarin trees will bear, +upon a good average tree, from three hundred to four hundred oranges +each--that is to say, good, sweet, juicy fruit, and these will sell +readily wholesale at about two shillings per hundred; while, in the way +of drawbacks for one who expects to make an income from his sales, it +will be found here that, just as at home, the tree that in one season +bears an exceptionally heavy crop is rather shy in its production in the +next. + +The words that follow deserve to be written in italics for the benefit +of those who know the ravages and foulness that come upon an orange tree +in company with the varieties of scale. There are no insect pests, +neither, as has been intimated, are there frosts to destroy the bloom. + +_. propos_ of this bloom, there is a practice pursued in Egypt which may +seem strange to an English gardener, but which adds largely to the +profits of the orange grower, and is doubtless beneficial to the tree, +relieving it as it may from the strain of overbearing. When the bitter +orange is in full flower the trees are shaken, and more than half of the +blossoms are sold for the purpose of distillation. The essence produced +is used for mixing with drinking water, or for flavouring beverages, +while the price received for the petals is about two-pence-halfpenny per +pound. + +In addition to the oranges, which are in season from November until +March, and keep fruiting in beautiful repetition, lemons of several +varieties are grown, and are marketable at the same time of year. These +are a most popular fruit among the Egyptians, largely utilised as a kind +of seasoning in the preparation of cooked dishes, and also much prized +for the making of summer beverages in this hot and thirsty land. These +are even better friends to the gardener growing for the market than +oranges, for they are sure croppers, and command a good price. + +Abundance may be written with regard to summer fruits, the list +numbering apricots, pears, plums, peaches, apples, grapes, figs, the +custard apple, pomegranate, melon, and banana. Of these, bananas, +apricots, pomegranates, and figs may be classed as the most profitable +fruits of the summer season. But people accustomed to the English +Moorpark and _Gros Peche_ apricot, which, when well-grown upon a south +wall or in an orchard-house, is one rich bag of reddish amber, +deliciously flavoured honey-like juice, would be much disappointed in +the abundant apricots which are produced upon standard trees for the +Egyptian market. They are finely flavoured, but small, hard, and +fibrous; and an experienced cultivator of fruit trees states that it is +very probable that the deficiency in quality and the reason that so far +it has not thrived to perfection is, paradoxical as it may sound, that +it matures too quickly, which is another way of saying that the climate +is too fine for it. Still, there is every reason to believe that +skilful management and choice acclimatisation, or the raising of new +sorts, may result in the production of finer apricots than those now +grown in England, where in some parts a manifest deterioration has been +in progress, so great that growers are destroying their apricots and +replacing them with fruit trees more suited to our sunless climate. + +Some years back a novelty made its appearance in the Alexandria +district. This was a veritable plague of Egypt, though undoubtedly a +visitant from abroad. It was a banana disease, which in its inroads +played great havoc amongst the plantations. Scientific examination was +brought to bear, and the cause was found to be a parasitic nematode +which attacked the roots of the plant. + +Fortunately the trouble was local, and the infection limited in its +area, while at the present time many of the plantations are free from +the pest. + +With regard to peaches, the way is open to the enterprising and clever +cultivator, for with such a constant supply of sunshine much ought to be +done in the way of growing this queen of fruits. Many of us here in +England, who have to trust to trees laboriously trained against a wall, +or spread out and tied in to wires at the cost of many a back and neck +ache, beneath the sloping glass of an orchard-house, have read with +watering mouths of the standard trees of the United States, where the +fallen peaches are gathered up in barrowfuls and considered of no +account. + +Abundance rules there, and possibly it may be that this is due to the +intensely hot summers of the States and their frigidly cold winters; for +this seems to be the nature of the climate in the country from which the +peach sprang and took its Latin name, _Persica_; for there, following +upon the summer heats, winter comes down from the mountains intensely +cold. + +This balance is wanting in Egypt, where, so far, peaches have not proved +to be a success. The trees grow well and bear fruit that is fairly +large in size, but does not possess the fine aromatic, juicy flavour of +a well-matured English peach grown upon a wall and only protected during +the time of frost, those raised under glass, save in size and +appearance, never approaching the open-air fruit. + +The Egyptian peaches are hard and fibrous, as well as wanting in the +piquant bitter almond flavour so much esteemed. Possibly the selection +of better kinds may make a great change in the hands of careful +cultivators, but in common fairness it is right to say that the +successful production of this favourite fruit in Egypt is open to doubt. + +So far, too, another stone fruit, the plum, is not extensively grown, +while the plums produced in the Egyptian garden cannot compare with +those imported from Europe. But this fruit is not such an aristocrat +among the luscious beauties of the garden as the exacting peach, and +there is nothing to prevent, either in soil or climate, a finer quality +being grown in the Delta. + +What is needed is the selection of new and suitable varieties, +accompanied by careful watching of results; in fact, the intelligent +management of a good experimental gardener, not one akin to that of +Egypt, who selects with extreme conservatism the easiest way to his +desired ends. He consequently devotes his time to those fruits which +flourish easily and well. His attention has been given principally to +the growing of the _citrus_ family, to the exclusion of such fruits as +pears and plums, which are imported from Syria and Turkey. In fact, in +spite of the possibilities of the Delta, how great is the want of +enterprise may readily be seen when it is stated that the value of the +imports of fruit may amount to many thousand pounds per annum. + +Unfortunately, our two most home-like and familiar fruits--apples and +pears--do not succeed here, the climate being far too hot. Pears have a +very small share of the land, and the fruit is not of the best quality. +But while it is doubtful about the apple, this doubt ought not to extend +to the pear, which is a lover of heat, and, as regards the better sorts, +delicate and tender in its constitution. There can be no doubt that if +a careful selection of some of the best French and Belgian varieties +were introduced, a fair meed of success would be the result, for it +seems almost contrary to reason that such kinds as the fragrant _Doyenne +de Comice_ and _Glou Morceau_, which fail as standards in the inclemency +of an English season, and crack and speck if they are not protected by a +wall, should not succeed in Egypt if they are given a fair trial. + +Not that there is much need for experiment in a country which can grow +its grapes gloriously in the open air, the vines not asking for the help +of glass. Some half dozen varieties are produced in Egypt, and flourish +well under treatment of the simplest kind. The cultivation of the vine +extends over the whole of the province of Fayoum. In this latter +district a white grape, called after its habitat the "Fayoumi," is the +favourite in the market, and it is the earliest that ripens. The +berries are medium sized, but the flavour is excellent and the fruit +very juicy. + +There is little question of training or trellis work, for, somewhat +after the fashion of the vineyards in France, the vines are grown as +bushes of about two feet high; and the result, though not the production +of the bunches of the Vale of Eshcol, is still abundance. + +Two varieties are grown in the Delta and Cairo districts, namely +"Roumy"--a kind derived from Greece--and "Shawishi." Here, as opposed +to the cultivation in the province of Fayoum, the vines are mostly +trained on lattice work so as to form what the old gardeners called a +pergola, or covered way. Both these varieties are heavy croppers, +bearing bunches whose berries are of a greenish red, while the flavour +is very good. + +Egypt is a land of vines and vineyards, much space being given to the +cultivation of the grape, though not for the purposes of carting to the +winepress, the Moslem religion being antagonistic to the grape's +fermented juice. Each district has its favoured kind, and in that of +Alexandria and along the shore of the Mediterranean the vine is +abundantly grown close to the ground, the soil being pure sand. + +There is a peculiarity in the cultivation here, for V-shaped trenches +are cut to a depth of from six to nine feet. Then vine shoots are +planted in the bottom of the trench, where the young rootlets they put +forth are within reach of water. Vegetation is rapid, and the canes +gradually cover the slopes on either side, while in two years the vines +begin to bear. + +The bushes receive no irrigation from above, only depending upon the +so-called winter rains, which are fairly frequent near the sea, and, as +has been shown, gaining their support from beneath the sand at the +bottom of the trench. But though no irrigation is brought to bear, +these ground vineries require annually an application of manure if the +best results are to be obtained. + +As the land of the Delta is practically level, it affords scarcely any +opportunities for the growth of the grape vine upon sunny slopes, this +being the only instance in Egypt where grapes are grown with this +exposure, while these slopes are all artificially made. + +As regards insect pests, they may be almost classed as _nil_, and the +grower will not hear of thrip and scale, mealie bug, or red spider, so +that the cultivation is conducted under the most favourable conditions; +but the ubiquitous sparrow is even there, and, unless means are taken to +scare away or destroy him, his ravages amongst the sweet berries are +great. + +Here, too, as may be supposed where grapes are produced to so great an +extent, the thinning of the berries is not resorted to, and consequently +they are not so large as might be expected from the heat of the climate +and the favourable conditions under which they are grown, nor is the +flavour so fine as that of the beautiful bunches so carefully tended and +watched under glass in an English vinery; but they command a ready sale +at about twopence per pound when the fruit is ripe, from the beginning +of June. + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +That delicious European fruit, the strawberry, by nature a dweller in +cool and Alpine regions, was not known in Egypt till within forty years +ago. Planted as an experiment by someone familiar with its qualities, +it seems to have passed rather an unfavourable time in popular +estimation; but it is now gradually gaining in favour, and the area +under cultivation is steadily extending. + +The fruit is ripe in November, and finds a ready sale at tenpence per +pound; while, if the cultivation is good and well-managed, the return to +the planter may be reckoned at forty pounds for the produce of an acre. + +To an Englishman familiar with the strawberry and its growth, one +knowing the botanical character of the plant and the love of its roots +for a rich clay land, it seems surprising that it should flourish so +well in the sandy soil of Egypt. But, of course, this is explained by +the yearly deposit of rich silt, or warp, the result of the annual +floods. + +Fortunately for the grower, he is not troubled as in England by woodland +birds, the Eastern crops suffering very little from their ravages, while +the plant enjoys almost an immunity from the attacks of insect plagues. + +In the goodly list of luscious fruits we now come to figs--not the +overgrown, sickly fruit that only ripens under very favourable +circumstances in England, but the rich saccharine bag of embedded seed +that we know best in its dried and pressed form as the common fig. + +Its cultivation is spread over the whole Delta and the Fayoum, where its +milky, succulent stems and dark green leaves flourish thoroughly well. +The trees, as a rule, grow to a height of nine or ten feet, are well +branched, and find great favour with the native gardener, for they +possess the admirable qualities of requiring not much attention, very +little manure, and no pruning. Joined to this, the trees are very +prolific, and the luscious fruit finds great favour with the people. + +Another popular fruit which grows without much attention save +irrigating, and that to a very moderate degree, is the prickly pear. + +Here in England the melon is looked upon as a delicacy. Gardeners vie +one with the other in its production, and seedsmen push forward this +fashionable fruit by advertising their own special specimens of prize +kinds, and these may be almost classed as legion. + +In Egypt the varieties are roughly divided into two, the sweet and the +water melon, and they both flourish wonderfully. They are sown in +February and March, and thrive best in light loam, while their period of +growth extends to about four months. + +In their rapid development they attain to a goodly size. For instance, +a water melon may reach the weight of thirty pounds, while from a +marketing point of view, taking large and small together, so as to +strike an average, the wholesale price may be placed at fivepence per +melon, and the cultivator of an acre of land devoted to this produce may +reckon on receiving from forty to sixty pounds--pretty satisfactory for +the four months of growth and the land ready for planting with some +other crop suitable to the season, for the grower has no dreary months +of winter to intervene. + +The cultivation of the sweet melon is similar to that of its relative, +but the fruit is finer in flavour and the plants not so prolific. +Consequently the grower's receipts are much smaller, a fair computation +of the returns from an acre being from about thirty to forty pounds. +There is another disadvantage, too, in the growth of this fruit. It +must be consumed within some ten days after being fully ripe, whereas +the sturdy water melon will keep good for over a month. In spite of the +good qualities of the melon, its ease of growth, and the market +requirements, nothing like sufficient are grown, the demand being +supplied by the importation of large quantities from neighbouring +countries. + +This popular fruit is always looked upon as deliciously refreshing and +fine in flavour, but it may be mentioned here how much climate has to do +with the quality of the fruit. Some years ago a friend, after a +prolonged stay in Egypt, presented the writer with a few seeds of the +Egyptian melon. These were planted here in England and nursed up under +glass with all the care that good gardening and watching could bestow. +Everything was done to the exotic plants that a certain amount of +experience in growing melons could supply, and a couple of them +flourished exceedingly--under glass, be it remembered, in a heated +house--blossomed, and bore several fine large green fruit, whose +increase was watched and maturing waited for, but in vain. + +Presumably there was a certain amount of fragrance and ripening, for the +fruit changed colour and gave forth the familiar odour; but the +anticipations of enjoying a delicious Egyptian melon were not fulfilled. +A good ripe vegetable marrow would have put either of them to the +blush. + +Pumpkins, big and gourd-like in growth--_pastiches_, as they are +commonly called--are most abundant in the early winter months, and are +largely brought down the river from Upper Egypt in barges or feluccas +with graceful lateen sails. They form a pleasant addition to the food +of the poor, while in their growth, favoured as they are by a hot sun, +rich soil, and a sufficiency of moisture, their increase is almost +fabulous, and anyone of curious taste and plenty of patience, aided by a +powerful magnifying glass, might in all probability be gratified by +seeing the creeping growth of the watery vine and the steady swelling +out of its heavy earth-supported fruit. + +Another fruit upon our list is the pomegranate, of late years made +familiar upon the barrows in the London streets, and looking when cut +open something like an unwholesome blood orange that has aborted and +taken to growing an enormous excess of pips embedded in jelly within a +hardened peel. + +In spite of the enterprise which has brought the fruit here, it seems +hardly likely to bring the shippers much reward; but it is extensively +grown in Egypt, is in great demand, and very profitable. + +To continue with unfamiliar fruits, we may next name the great date +palm, which may be looked upon as the most common tree to be found in +Egypt, growing as it does all over both the upper and lower regions, as +well as on the sandy shores of the Mediterranean Sea. No wonder that it +is so largely planted, for its fruit is everywhere consumed by the +people as a portion of their food. + +The tree begins to bear five years after planting, and should take the +record as a profitable friend of man, for under favourable conditions it +will go on bearing for a hundred years or more, while a good tree will +bear, on an average, over a hundredweight of fruit, which is disposed of +amongst the people at the popular price of one penny per pound. + +The fruit ripens in September, and where the trees are selected, are of +the best variety and well attended to, the profits are very good, +especially if they are planted in a garden, where their tuft of leaves, +raised high upon their tall, smooth stems, throws so little shade that +the ground beneath can be profitably planted with other crops, such as +the ordinary domestic vegetables of our own country, haricot beans, +peas, spinach, etc. + +"The large, dark, red-skinned, hard date," a friend writes from Cairo, +"has long been plentiful, and forms one of the staple foods of the +populace. But to-day--_i.e._, mid-October--the soft, small luscious +date was served at table. This is a most delicious fruit. It tastes +for all the world like caramel toffee, though of course much softer. +These dates are wonderfully cheap. They do not, however, keep more than +twelve hours after picking, and then begin to ferment and taste like +beer. They are most plentiful, and there is, no doubt, much waste. I +should think that a strong spirituous liquor could be distilled from +them." + +Other fruits may be mentioned, such as the quince, loquat, lotus, and +that favourite of farther east, the delicious mango; but these are not +extensively cultivated, and may very well be excluded from a list of +fruits that might be profitably grown for market purposes. The wonder +is that the mango has been neglected, comparatively, up to now. Still, +the Egyptians are waking up to its value, for during 1903 there has been +in Cairo a very plentiful supply of this luscious fruit, which bears +some semblance in the eating to a very rich and juicy apricot, +resembling it also in colour. + +The old saying of the Anglo-Indian who makes it a favourite, in spite of +a slight suspicion of turpentine in its flavour, is doubtless well-known +to the reader--that which suggests that the best way of combating the +superabundant juice and its gushing ways is to sit in one's bath when +partaking of the fruit. + +In summing up the prospects of fruit growing in Egypt, Mr Wright states +that he has no hesitation in saying that the conditions for gardening in +Egypt are certainly far more favourable than in such an uncertain +climate as that of England, where in one night so much blossom may be +destroyed by frost; while in Egypt one never hears of such a thing as a +total failure of crop. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +To take a stride now from the delicious and attractive to the homely and +useful, but at the same time more general and profitable growing crops +of Egypt, let us turn to the gardener's mainstay--his vegetables. + +Here the first thing that strikes a visitor to this semi-tropical land +is the familiarity of many of the garden crops--some, to use an +old-fashioned term, grown out of knowledge; others perhaps wanting in +the qualities of the home country. + +Most familiar of all--certainly the most homely and extensively grown, +with great profit, is the cabbage, in three varieties--the White +Drumhead, the Red Drumhead, and the Savoy. Here a little unfamiliarity +steps in, and that is in the usage, for the cabbage in Egypt is utilised +by the people as a salad as well as for cooking. + +From a gardener's point of view the head is not so large and hard, the +vegetable not forming a solid heart as it does in England. But this may +be accounted for by want of sufficient manure and attention--good +gardening, in short--and perhaps the climate is not wholly to blame. + +The cauliflower flourishes fairly well under similar cultivation to the +cabbage, but being more delicate requires greater attention; differing +from the latter, the heads are well formed, but it is necessary to shade +them when coming to perfection, the clean, white growth being liable to +be damaged by the too ardent sun. + +Good cauliflowers command a ready sale at better prices than are to be +had in London as a rule, the average cost being from twopence-halfpenny +to fivepence per head. + +Another very familiar crop is seen largely in Egypt--the leek. This is +a profitable vegetable, which grows to a good size, is easily +cultivated, and realises a total per acre of about fifteen pounds. The +carrot, too, is largely grown--in two varieties, the native and the +Greek. The native kind is sown in September, and is ready for lifting +in January; while the Greek variety, sown in the same month, is also +used for the production of a summer crop in February. A deep soil is +necessary, while its sandy nature in Egypt is most suitable for this +root, and when carefully cultivated a fair return may be expected. + +One of the most extensively grown vegetables, a very general favourite +almost everywhere except in England, is the garlic. It does well in +Egypt, often in plots of as much as two acres, and has the advantages of +not requiring great care in cultivation, nor much water; while an +average crop will yield of the silvery bulbs enough to be valued at +about fifteen pounds per acre. + +The onion, again, proves itself to be a most thriving inhabitant of this +Eastern country, growing hard, firm, clean-skinned, and healthy. In +this sunny clime it is extensively grown, and not merely for home use. +The kind most popular is the red Spanish onion, and it is cultivated +both in Upper Egypt and Lower, there being this peculiarity of +difference, namely, that the Spanish onion grows to a larger size in the +south, while the flavour of those grown in the Delta is superior. + +A few words will not be out of place respecting the cultivation of this +vegetable in Upper Egypt, where it is grown most extensively as a farm +crop for export. The seed is sown in the month of October, +transplantation takes place in March, and, all going well, the crop is +ready for lifting in June or July. After the transplanting no +irrigation is required. The yield is approximately four to five tons +per acre, and the market price two pounds per ton. + +The next vegetable on our list when grown in quantity looks wonderfully +familiar and home-like. It is the artichoke--not that of tuberous and +sunflower-like growth, but the deeply cut, acanthus-like leaved +ornamental plant of English gardens, with its majestic thistle-like +purple head. + +This is one of the best-paying garden crops, these heads being greatly +in demand by Europeans, though not much sought after by the natives. In +the culture it will be found that the growth is excellent for four +years, when transplanting becomes necessary and should be resorted to. + +Asparagus is decidedly one of the best-paying crops in Egypt, and +naturally always in great demand by the Europeans who visit or pass +through the country in ever-increasing numbers. The cultivation is the +same good old-fashioned style practised in England, the beds being well +prepared and generously treated with stimulants. All that is required +to secure a fine crop is proper attention under skilled direction, for +there are no drawbacks from frost, the grower never finding the sturdy +greenish purple shoots of yesterday drooping over and destroyed by the +morning's frost. + +Well treated, the beds will remain good for from ten to fifteen years, a +very modest computation this, for if well-managed and not cut too hard, +a good asparagus plantation ought to remain prosperous for twenty or +thirty years. As the result of his generous treatment in the way of +stimulants, the grower may expect to receive wholesale from two +shillings to five shillings per hundred shoots, according to their size. + +That easily-cultivated wholesome vegetable, spinach, is largely grown +from September till January; while now may be added, most extensively +raised, a vegetable new to Occidental eyes, in company with three more +which have long periods of growth, well fitting one to succeed the +other. + +The first is a small-flowered mallow, whose period is from September to +October--it is much relished by the poorer Egyptians as a cooked +vegetable resembling spinach; purslane is another very easily-grown +plant, whose period is from March to September; Jews' mallow, too, is a +vegetable greatly esteemed by the natives. This is cultivated, and also +found growing wild in the fields. It is much in demand as a summer +vegetable. Okra is another dish held in high estimation; it is not +difficult to grow, and forms a good paying crop. + +To return to the familiar vegetables of Western gardens, we have a great +favourite in the shape of the haricot bean. This grows exceedingly well +in Egypt, on condition of its being well supplied with water, while the +rapidity of its maturing is marvellous, showing, as it does, the beauty +of the Egyptian climate and the power of the sun, for it is fit to pick +thirty days after sowing, and the land ready for another crop, a fact +which seems almost incredible. + +The next on the list of profitable vegetables is the ordinary broad +bean, but this is not extensively grown, as it is only consumed by the +upper class natives, the poorer people preferring the ordinary horse +bean, which is grown as a winter crop. These beans are a very common +article of food, and are bought by the peasantry, ready boiled, in most +public places. They are also largely employed as provender for the +working cattle. The roots of an arum and of the lotus, too, are largely +consumed, and no wonder in the case of the latter in such a dreamy land; +but the effects are not quite the same as the former Laureate described. + +The turnip, so popular in England, finds little favour, though it is +easily raised as a medium-paying crop, and, odd as it may sound, it is +principally used pickled. + +Colocass is generally grown upon the farm. The tubers are large, about +the size of an English turnip. This is a splendid paying crop, which is +largely consumed as a vegetable and forms one of the staple foods of the +fellaheen. + +The sweet potato is also a common vegetable here, but the name sounds +foreign to an English cultivator. It is a plant with tuberous roots of +a white colour, mostly eaten roasted, and, like the colocass, it is a +favourite food of the farm labourer. The value of the produce of an +acre may be estimated at ten pounds, and the duration of the crop is +about four months. + +The cucumber thrives very well in Egypt, and, of course, there is no +necessity for the protection of glass. It is as popular as in England, +but perhaps more utilised, lasting well through summer into autumn, and +proves to be a very paying crop, provided it has a plentiful supply of +water. This may also be said of the two varieties of vegetable marrow, +the green and white, which are largely raised. The fruits are most +popular when very young, and are much relished when treated as the +cucumber is in England--that is to say, served as a salad, though it is +cooked as well. This, like the cucumber, is a medium-paying crop. As +for the latter, it has been a favourite object of culture, dating right +back to the days of the Israelites. The allusion to the cucumber will +be recalled, and all species of this family are cultivated with +assiduity. Not that there is anything wonderful in this, for in a hot +country fruits and vegetables of rapid growth, and which cause little +trouble, are sure to be affected. We say rapid growth advisedly, for in +favourable seasons the shoot of a cucumber may be almost seen to grow, +achieving as it does, at times, a length of twenty-four inches in a day +and night. + +The ordinary salads and herbs of the English garden are easily raised, +and form profitable crops, available summer and winter, and are highly +esteemed. Among other plants we have poppies, madder, indigo, flax and +hemp; while in the province of Fayoum one very charming form of +gardening is practised, namely the growth of the rose tree, from which +is prepared the rose water so popular all through the East. + +As for flowers of all descriptions, where they are scarce it is the +fault of the people, for many of our most brilliant kinds, especially +the more tender, which are raised in our islands only with care, +brighten the land and flourish everywhere like weeds. + +Our ornamental hothouse growth, the eggplant, here forms a most +important vegetable, which is extensively cultivated. It is similar to +the aubergine, which is used in France and seen occasionally in Covent +Garden Market; but the years glide by, and its bids for popular favour +have met with but little success. + +It is the reverse in Egypt, where its use is general, whether as a +cooked vegetable, pickled, or in its raw state. It demands a rich, deep +soil, and is raised in both varieties, white and black, for use in +summer and autumn, and proves to be very profitable to the grower. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +Perhaps the most successful vegetable that has been introduced into +England is the tomato. Forty or fifty years ago a punnet or two of the +attractive vivid scarlet fruit might be seen in season at Covent Garden +Market. They were known as "love-apples," and probably were bought and +consumed; but their growth into favour was very slow before becoming a +fashion, and, with most people, an acquired taste. The tomato forms a +summer production of the English market gardener, who is rivalled by the +growers of the Channel Islands; and it is sent into market daily by the +ton; while, when the inclemency of our climate renders firing absolutely +necessary, the enterprising growers of the Canaries keep up the supply. +Flourishing so well just off the west coast of Africa, it is only +natural that the tomato should find a congenial home in the fertile East +of the great Continent, and it is extensively grown with increasing +success in Egypt. + +As an example of the tomato being treated as a profitable crop, here is +an instance of what has been done in the way of market gardening in the +district of Alexandria, and may be done again by those persevering +cultivators who are struggling to make a moderate living. + +A father and two grown-up sons may rent a plot of land of, say, four +acres in extent, the rent of which perhaps reaches ten pounds per annum, +the gardener having to raise water for irrigation purposes. + +The occupation of the land would commence on the first of August. The +soil may be classed as pure sand, which naturally requires a liberal +application of farmyard manure. The ordinary tillage having been +carried out, the cultivator begins by transplanting seedling tomatoes +about the beginning of September. Not being prepared to plant the whole +of his four acres with tomatoes, he sows on another part vegetable +marrows, which in this hot climate are ready for plucking in six weeks, +the plants continuing to bear for a month; while directly this supply is +finished another crop of marrows may be sown on the same land. + +Meanwhile, the tomatoes are pushing forward to be ready by the first of +January at a time when the price is generally good, though probably in +no other vegetable is there so great a variance in the amount it will +fetch, dependent, of course, on the scarcity or plentifulness of the +crop. + +It will be news, probably, for the British grower when he reads that the +wholesale price of tomatoes in Egypt varies from one farthing to +fivepence per pound. Perhaps he may open his eyes a little wider when +he reads that a fair estimate of the gross return from growing tomatoes +for the market supply of Alexandria will vary from ten pounds to fifty +pounds or more per acre; and, of course, this is in the open ground, +forming an almost immediate return, and with no preliminary outlay for +glass houses. + +But there are always drawbacks in gardening; and one of these, which may +occasionally mar success, is caused on this land so near the sea by the +fogs. These, if they attack this delicate plant, so famous here at home +for developing aphides and fungoid diseases, like their unfortunate +relatives the potatoes, destroy the leaves, blacken them, hinder the +setting of the blossom, and generally reduce the crop. + +Several men have been known to engage in this cultivation in the +neighbourhood of Alexandria during the last five years, and apparently +they have financially improved their position. + +Leaving the aristocratic tomato and turning to its poor relative the +potato, it might have been hoped that in such a hot, sandy land as +Egypt, where thousands of acres offer the same facilities, and are made +as rich and fertile as the famous warp-land potato tracts of north +Lincolnshire and south Yorkshire, a home would have been found where it +would flourish free from disease. + +Unfortunately, the information to be given to the horticultural or +agricultural grower upon this point is not good; in fact, quite +sufficient to make the writer suggest that it should be a crop to be +left alone. + +Certainly potato growing is tempting; the cultivation is simple, the +crops heavy and very profitable _if_--this is a very large "if," and +means so much, especially connected with weather and disease. +Experience of long years employed in gardening and farming in Egypt +suggests that if the cultivation of the potato is entered upon it is +best to be grown on the farm or by large market gardeners. + +Good quality potatoes, such as are marketed in England, are rarely found +in Egypt. The crop is generally grown from "seed" imported from France +and Italy, and a sandy soil is chosen. Two crops, however, can be taken +from the land per annum. The first is planted in October, and should be +ready for lifting in the beginning of February, a period of five months; +the second, planted in February, is ready for harvesting in June--the +duration of time for the crop to be on the land, one hundred and ten +days. It sounds novel to a British grower to speak of a winter and a +summer crop of potatoes, two crops in the year; but this is so, and the +winter may yield three tons per acre, while the summer produces five to +six; while the current price per ton returned to the grower is about +seven pounds. As this is the most popular of vegetables, and the demand +always so great for good, well-grown new potatoes, experiments have been +tried for raising these in the neighbourhood of Cairo and sending them +packed in boxes to arrive in England, when they would be eagerly bought +up in the market as luxuries, at the beginning of March. + +Here are the returns of the experiment. From fifteen to eighteen pounds +per ton were realised; carriage, freight, and other expenses amounted to +three pounds per ton, leaving a margin of profit over the price in Egypt +of from five pounds to eight pounds sterling. Enough this to make the +Delta worthy the name of a land of promise, and especially more so when +it can be, and is, announced that it is a country where there is no +potato disease. In exceptional cases, however, there is the drawback of +cold weather, which retards the growth of the winter crop. + +Another objection is that all the seed potatoes--and these are heavy of +freight--have to be imported, as storing throughout the summer is +impracticable. + +It is only fair to say, however, on behalf of our good old mealy friend, +the familiar object of every man's table, that in his guise of a +foreigner--an African--he will be much better if he is let alone and not +subjected to the tricks of trade, which recoil upon and tend to spoil +his character. For in the harvesting of the crop a bad practice has +arisen with the Egyptian market gardener, who generally carries on his +operations in the neighbourhood of some irrigation canal connected with +the Nile, where he has, so to speak, abundance of conserved water always +on tap ready to give his fields a heavy watering. This he bestows upon +his potatoes just before turning them out of the ground, as he finds +that it greatly increases the weight of the tubers; but it spoils their +quality, and makes them what a Londoner calls "waxy," and a north +countryman "sad." + +One ought not to close one's list of garden or farm productions without +adding the names of a few so-called spices, or flavour-producing plants, +which are always in steady demand and flourish well in the valley of the +Nile. Among these are the capsicum, the green and the red, which are +most easy of culture, and come to maturity rapidly with the same +treatment as is accorded to the tomato. There is also the lesser kind, +or chilli; the caraway famous for its seeds, the coriander, and dill; +while as to the familiar mustard, it hardly asks for cultivation at all, +but grows rapidly and ripens well, while the seed, when ground into the +familiar condiment, is pungent and aromatic in the extreme. + +As is well-known, a fine class of tobacco is grown pretty largely in the +Delta. It is wanting in the strength of the kinds raised in the West +Indies and the United States. It is excelled, too, in potency by the +products of the East Indies; but it is of a very delicate flavour and +much liked, though not so popular as that of Turkey in Europe and Asia. +But this is partially due to want of usage on the part of smokers, who +are not accustomed to the pungency and fine aroma which appertain to the +Egyptian tobacco as compared with the Turkish. But the North African is +remarkably good all the same, and flourishes splendidly, there always +being abundance of sunshine at the picking time and excellent +opportunity for _haying_ the crop. For, after all said and done, a +great deal of the aroma of tobacco depends upon the fermenting process +it goes through in being dried and pressed, just as a well-made crop of +grass, hay, or clover, is dependent upon the skill of the farmer and his +choice of weather. + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +Supposing an enterprising personage to have taken up a tract of the +desert of, say, one hundred acres in Egypt, where divisions must not be +looked for in the way of fence or hedge, but dependence placed upon the +irrigating drain, it will be as well to give a list of the farm +implements he would require, and their cost--always presuming that he is +prepared to be content, certainly at first, with the ordinary +contrivances of the country, which are rough, but very cheap. + +Necessaries are given here, and nothing more; while the accompanying +illustrations spread through the text afford a very good idea of the +objects that will become familiar upon his pioneer land. + +Four native ploughs, exceedingly rough in construction, for tickling the +soil that is to laugh with a harvest, their cost about ten shillings +each; a baulk wood, to be drawn by oxen, mules, or donkeys, over the +yielding surface and act the part of a roller, six shillings; a ridging +box, for preparing the land for potatoes or sugar-cane, two shillings; +two scrapers, eight shillings; chains, six shillings; one lorry, five +pounds; two box carts at four pounds each; two threshing norags at eight +pounds each; total, thirty-two pounds ten shillings. + +Of course, it is open to the man of enterprise to invest in the +different ingenious contrivances of the British agricultural implement +maker, such as the admirable invention the Patent Turn-Wrest Plough, +invented by Mr Thomas Wright, whose experience in the cultivation of +the Khedive's land resulted in his bringing to perfection an implement +exactly suited to Egyptian needs. + +The list given above names all that is absolutely necessary in a country +where the tiller of the soil is so munificently aided by the almost +incessant sunshine and abundant water. + +But the farm implement _par excellence_ of the fellaheen, the tool which +is to him what the shovel is to the British navvy, an instrument with +which nearly everything in the way of moving the soil can be done, is +the fas, the broad-headed hoe seen carried by the two fellaheen +labourers in the engraving accompanying this chapter. It is one of the +first inventions of the cultivator, and not so very far removed from its +pierced flint representative occasionally turned up amongst the weapons +and tools of primitive man; but when bronze, and later on iron, began to +yield to the inventor, and the action of fire was utilised by the Tubal +Cains of their day, the broad-headed hoe began to develop; and we have +it spread, in a very similar form to that still used in Egypt, all round +the world where men commenced to till the soil. For we see it to this +day very similar in shape in those two vast agricultural countries, +India and China, while in Egypt it is handled by the fellaheen labourer +in a way which is beyond praise. + +The native plough, as seen by the photographic reproduction, is a very +primitive implement, the date of whose invention must be sought for by +an examination of some of the characteristic gravings in marble to be +found in the Egyptian tombs, where the pursuits of the old-time +inhabitants are recorded in a style that is absolutely wondrous. + +It consists of a pole of wood measuring about ten feet in length, which +is strongly bolted to the sole or body of the plough. This soie, which +measures three feet, is shod with a share resembling a pointed shovel. +The end of the pole is attached by a rope to the yoke, which lies across +the necks of the bullocks, buffaloes, or even camels--as seen in the +case of the Norag, drawn round and round over the threshing-floor--which +are utilised by the Egyptian cultivator according to his means, while +the labourer guides the plough by the aid of an upright handle. This +implement does not turn over the soil, and may be properly classed as a +one-tined cultivator. There is a quaintness and old-world look, as +shown in the photographs, in the mixture of forces, a huge buffalo bull +being mated with a small native ox, a bullock with some fine-grown ass, +while cows are frequently yoked together to help and drag the light +plough. Whether horses of the type of our heavy, slow-going farm breed +will finally work their way to the front remains to be seen; but at +present they have hardly begun to oust the old-world yokes of strangely +assorted beasts from the turning up of the soil. It is more probable, +unless the fuel difficulty stands in the way, that the larger tracts +will be further brought into cultivation by means of steam and the deep +subsoil ploughs which do such an immensity of work in a single day. + +As will be noted in the description, the modern native plough is single +stilted, and it might be supposed in a country like this that such an +implement had been in use ever since the plough's invention; but as in +many other records that have been unearthed, engraven in stone in the +wonderful pictorial writings found in temple and tomb, we have proof +that this was not always the case; for in the days of the agricultural +King Ti, who is supposed to date back to the Fifth Dynasty, that is some +five thousand years in the dim past, there is a representation of a +plough in use with two handles, very much the same in shape as those +brought out quite lately and known as the "American chilled," these +being guided in our own old familiar way. + +The Baulk wood used as a harrow or roller is drawn by two bullocks, and +answers its purpose in smoothing the very sandy soil fairly well. + +The Ridging Box, or Baitana, is used for raising low ridges on the flat +to retain the water for irrigation purposes. + +The Scraper is a box with two handles for levelling high land and +earning the sand to lower portions. + +The Norag is a massive frame fitted with three or four axles, upon which +are fixed steel discs twenty inches in diameter and with four or five +discs alternately on each axle. This is drawn by a pair of bullocks +over the cut grain till it is threshed out. This implement is, by long +proof, most effectual in its action, for when drawn over the grain +sheaves it acts in a two-fold way, loosening the ear, or, in the cases +of some leguminous crops, the pods--and, of course, vastly helped by the +treading of the oxen's hoofs--so that the grain falls through right to +the bottom and is covered by fresh quantities, sheaves, or the like, of +the crop that is being threshed. Its second action is that the edges of +the discs are constantly bruising and half cutting the straw or stalks, +which in a dry season or from want of effective irrigation are often +hard and woody. It must be understood that the straw is not used; as in +England, for litter, but as the most important food for cattle, and this +action of the Norag, with its sharp discs, so bruises and chops up the +straw that it becomes softened in its harshness, and far better for the +animals to which it is supplied for food. In fact, during the time when +it is most supplied to the cattle, which is during the summer or least +abundant season, it is a work of necessity to make it more attractive to +the animals, this bruising and cutting bringing forth the flavour of +such juices as still remain in the plant, making it slightly aromatic +and certainly more palatable as food. + +We in England have not been ignorant of the value in cattle feeding of +endeavouring to give some zest to the coarser kinds of fodder which +economy necessitates in the case of the British farmer. Poor hay, musty +grain, consequent upon a bad harvest, and unsatisfying chaff, are eaten +by unfortunate cattle, which, suffering as it were from Hobson's choice +of having that or none, eat the provender supplied without protest; but +Nature resents it for them, and they show it in their poor condition. +Of course, in the case of a well-bred horse the matter is different; he +snuffs at and blows upon the untempting contents of his manger, and then +turns away in disgust from that which his cloven-hoofed companions +patiently chew. + +But in many a case this damaged grain, hay, or straw has been made +attractive by a sprinkle of one of the savoury cattle foods that were +invented and imitated some forty or fifty years ago, a portion of the +ingredients in one kind consisting of the broken up and stickily sweet +locust bean and the contents of its pod, with a dash of the bitter and +aromatic fenugreek. But in Egypt, where the rain does so little towards +injuring the straw or stalk, such musty fare seldom falls to the lot of +the native cattle, while this chopped or bruised straw, the _tibn_ +already mentioned, is constantly prepared at the time of threshing by +the action of the ingeniously constructed Norag. + +No one can see the spot laid down for the reception of the harvest +produce in Egypt--so much hard-beaten earth upon which the peas, beans, +or grain of various sorts are thrown, ready for the oxen to drag over it +this peculiar revolving wheeled or disked implement--without being +reminded of the place where the plague was stayed--the threshing-floor +of Araunah the Jebusite; nor can he help comparing the native plough, +that simple scarifier, with antique agricultural tillers of the soil +depicted on the most ancient sculpture or penned in olden manuscripts, +as in use by ancient nations as well as by our Saxon ancestors. The +ploughs of the West many, many centuries back are almost precisely the +same as those we see in the Egypt of to-day, save in the cases where he +who drives the plough has to deal with a hard and heavy earth crust far +different to the light and sandy soil of Egypt, whose labourer guides a +plough with one hand; for in one antique representation of ploughing the +labourer steers the agricultural implement with his left and wields in +his right a heavy axe, whose purpose is to break the clods prior to the +passing of the implement he steers. + +Ingeniously constructed, but that is all that can be said of the native +threshing machine, for amongst the poorer class cultivators its +manufacture is almost inconceivably rough, and clumsy in the extreme. +No verbal description could compete with that afforded by the +photo-engraving that accompanies these pages, depicting, as it does, the +rough, effective implement, its attendants with their quaint forks and +rakes, and, above all, the driver, who adds his weight to the farming +implement and shoulders his very merciful speed-inducing wand for the +benefit of his mixed yoke. This is, of course, an awkward team, but not +infrequent; and the Egyptian farmer who first attempted this application +of force must have been as eccentric as he was ingenious when he coupled +on either side of such a rough pole a patient camel and a native bull. + +But somehow, and by a careful division of labour and adjustment of the +yoke, the two patient beasts may be seen plodding on round and round the +smooth, level, modern representative of the old Biblical +threshing-floor. The more regular yoke attached to the Norag, which +from its cutting and bruising qualities has been translated by the +French "Hache paille," or chop-straw--this bears astounding similarity +to the "whop-straw" shared by the old-fashioned British bucolic with his +flail--is seen in the other photograph of the pair of native cows, +though very frequently it is drawn by a yoke of oxen, by the big, clumsy +buffaloes, or even by a yoke consisting of one of each, the oxen taking +the palm for their sturdiness and staying power. This mode of threshing +and bruising and chopping the straw is carried out in a similar mode in +parts of India. + +Here though these old ways are giving place to the use of modern +machinery, which is readily adopted by the Egyptian, who naturally does +not find in the threshing machine the old failing complained of by the +British farmer, to wit, that it bruised and broke up the straw, +rendering it unfit to use as thatching or to make into the neat, pale +golden trusses once so familiar in the market. + +There is, however, an unpleasant feature in the native threshing in +connection with the samples of corn. As may be supposed, when the +threshing is at an end and the _tibn_ stacked, or rather piled in a +heap, leaving the grain to be shovelled up, no amount of winnowing and +sifting can remove from it a certain amount of sullying brought about by +the constant trampling of the oxen. + +This has, in the past, acted inimically to the success of the fine, +hard, dry, shot-like grain of Egypt in foreign markets; but in these +days of advance not only has the bullock-worked European threshing +machine made its way into the Egyptian fields, but it is no uncommon +thing for the pleasant hum of the steam thresher to be heard where the +ingenious machinery of England is carrying on its untiring labour of +threshing out, winnowing, and filling its sacks of grain, as much at +home as if it were upon some Yorkshire or Lincolnshire farm. + +It will not be out of place, after dealing with the Egyptian _tibn_, to +state here that experienced cultivators have found the advantage of +carefully feeding their working bullocks so as to obtain for them the +good, sound stamina which will be naturally followed by the best amount +of work. This they find by sprinkling amongst the chopped straw or +_tibn_ supplied about one-third in weight of beans, not crushed or +ground, but either whole or split; for it has been noticed that the +draught animals flourish better upon this food than upon bean meal; +while the process of splitting, Mr Wallace states, saves the bean from +the attack of one of the Egyptian farmer's minor plagues--the weevil; +for, as if governed by some wondrous instinct in their preparations for +the continuation of their species, and a desire to ensure for them good +wholesome food upon which to feed, these creatures do not lay their eggs +in damaged grain. + +Of late years many of the European implements have been introduced-- +Ransomes' threshers and straw--bruisers, one-way or balance ploughs, +harrows, clod-crushers, horse-hoes, Norwegian harrows, spring-tooth +cultivators, steam ploughs and cultivators, mowers, reapers, and +binders, maize-shellers, seed graders, broadcast-sowing machines, and +seed drills. + +European ploughs, as they invert the earth, are naturally the most +beneficial to the growth of the crop, as by bringing the under-soil to +the surface to receive benefit from the sun and air, they greatly +improve the root range of the plants. + +Steam ploughing is gradually gaining in favour, owing to the scarcity of +work-bullocks. A few of the large proprietors have recently purchased +plants or entire gear. The scythe for cutting clover has been found, +too, a great improvement upon the antique native fashion of pulling by +hand, the saving of expense being seventy per cent. But a great +drawback to the adoption of European implements is the aversion of the +Egyptian farm labourer to any innovation, his want of intelligence in +handling what to him appears complicated machinery, and his +unwillingness to learn. Here, though, in common justice it must be said +that he does not stand alone, for the experiences of the British farmer +in most of our counties, and his battles with the pig-headed +conservatism of his men, would form an amusing chronicle. The clumsy +implement of his forefathers, invented, historians say, some five +thousand years ago, is in the native's eyes perfectly right, and could +not be better; and he prefers to go on blistering or hardening his hands +in what he looks upon as the good old ways, until he is forced to handle +modern machines, and then by very, very slow degrees he begins to see, +but not before he has broken many, or put them out of gear. But +unfortunately the farm labourer is not the sole offender, as the history +of the introduction of mechanism of any kind will tell. + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +Much has been written about Egypt and its soil; but in giving here an +account of its possibilities and prospects for cultivation in the ways +of modern farming, some repetition is necessary. It is fair to say that +the soil of Egypt is one of the richest in the world. It is alluvial, +ranging from the heavy argillaceous to light loam. It varies, too, in +its fertility, and in low-lying lands is frequently impregnated with +salt. This is generally owing to want of drainage. When properly +treated and flooded with water it soon becomes what is technically known +as "sweet," and available for the growth of crops. + +Very rich soils are to be found in the provinces of Menoufieh and +Charkieh, while those of Beherah are flat and generally low-lying; but +the depth may range up to forty feet! + +The preparation of the land for the various crops is not what may be +termed difficult, although in the heavy black lands powerful draught +oxen are required for the ploughs and other implements. But with +irrigation at command, and abundance of moisture becoming more and more +common in connection with the modern dams and canals, if the land be +hard and baked it can be flooded with water as required, when it quickly +becomes in a friable condition, and hence comparatively easy to break +up. + +In the Delta such conditions are never experienced as frequently are +encountered upon the heavy clays in England, where the land becomes so +hard that it cannot be tilled. + +Possessing the qualities of richness, vast depth of soil, and a glorious +climate, it is not surprising that with the steady developments of the +Khedive's country and the safety and security enjoyed under his +enlightened rule, accompanied by the example he is setting in his +experiments for the advancement of Egyptian agriculture, the price of +land has risen enormously. Within the last few years one hundred pounds +per acre is quite a common figure; but that which is unreclaimed can +still be purchased for from fifteen to thirty pounds. This, of course, +necessitates an additional outlay, which is, after all, quite a moderate +sum, upon improvements, when it will yield a good return of profit. + +The Egyptian agriculturist divides _his_ year into _three_ portions: + +Summer, from April 1st to August 1st. + +Nileh, from August 1st to December 1st. + +Winter, from December 1st to April 1st. But it must be remembered that +the Egyptian winter would be better named balmy spring. + +As this little work is written primarily for those who take an interest +in the progress of a favoured country, and who may possibly be looking +towards the East with the eyes of investment, or for a future home where +they may lead a Virgilian or bucolic life, it is proposed to give here a +simple, business-like account of the various processes and preparations +made for the growth and harvesting of the different crops sown in the +above seasons:-- + +Winter Crops: Clover, barley, beans, and wheat. + +Summer Crops: Cotton and sugar-cane, and also maize. + +Nileh Crop: Maize alone. + +Rotation.--A three years' rotation is the one generally practised, +although there is a tendency to limit it to two years. + +It would be as well to consider the crops as they succeed each other, +beginning with the cotton. + +A great deal of interest attaches to the growth of cotton in Egypt. It +was largely cultivated by the ancient Egyptians, and its products +utilised, but after a time--it is impossible to say how long, possibly +during the great changes that took place during incursions, conquests, +or change of rulers--its growth died out to such an extent that a few +generations back, as an article of utility, its cultivation had pretty +well ceased, and cotton was scarcely known, save as a decorative shrub +in the gardens of Cairo. + +But during the reign of the Khedive's ancestor, Mehemet Ali, a man of +great foresight, full of determination for the advance of his people, he +completely grasped the idea that Egypt was one of the most suitable of +countries for the cultivation of the cotton tree, and that it ought to +be produced in his dominions instead of dependence being placed upon +importation from other lands. + +In pursuance of this idea, he began to make experiments, testing it, so +to speak, by forming plantations. These turned out so well that he +proceeded to take further steps, and with great enterprise commenced the +cultivation upon a large scale. Many thousands of the Egyptian acres +were planted in the lower provinces, and to a far greater extent +planting was carried on in the rich lands of Upper Egypt bordering on +the Nile. + +The little trees responded freely to the Egyptian cultivation; the rich, +irrigated soil, yearly replenished by the sediment left by the floods, +proved that the ancients were right, and wherever the land was deep the +results were most favourable; while where a bad selection had been made, +and the soil was shallow and inferior, the return of the pods, or +technically _bolls_, was poor. + +The method of its cultivation will be given _in extenso_ farther on, but +it will be as well to note here, in regard to the enterprise which +turned Egypt into its present state as one of the great cotton-growing +countries of the world, that the seed was originally imported from +Brazil, though it is undoubtedly a native of Northern Africa; and at the +present time the returns are very great. + +The preparation of the land for the growth of cotton commences in +January. The seed is sown from the middle of February till the middle +of March, and the cropping harvested, or picked, about the end of +November; while previous to the last picking of the soft woolly pods, +clover seed is sown amongst the standing cotton trees. + +This, so to speak, stolen crop provides a supply for horses, cattle, and +sheep till the end of June; for it must be borne in mind that Egypt is +not a land of fields and meadows enclosed by hedgerows; hence grazing +for cattle is the result of foresight, and has to be provided as +required. + +On the land not sown with clover, and at the end of the cotton harvest, +after the little trees have been uprooted, a crop of beans is sown, +which becomes ready for harvesting in April; and now there is a period +in which the agriculturist may take his choice of sowing what may be +termed catch crops, or fallowing his land for five months. In this he +is guided by position and the facility offered for the disposal of such +easy crops as water melons or maize, which can be taken after beans. + +It is at the end of October that he begins to think of his main crops, +when wheat and barley are sown, to be harvested from the beginning of +May to the end of June. Then follows the main crop of maize, which +occupies the land from July 15th to November 15th. + +Previous to the harvesting of this main crop of maize, clover is again +sown, and from this one or two pasturings are obtained before the land +is broken up once more for the succeeding important crop of cotton, this +completing the rotation. + +The sugar-cane has not been given a place in this rotation, as it is +principally grown in Upper Egypt for the manufacture of sugar, while we +are dealing with the rich lands of the Delta and the farming there. But +we may here remark that the Egyptians are as fond of the green +sugar-cane as an article of diet as the blacks of the West Indies, who +may be seen munching its luscious saccharine at all times and seasons. + +There is something more in this among the Egyptians than the +gratification of a sweet palate, for it is eaten largely from the great +faith of rich and poor alike in its tonic qualities. "Gasab," or as +they pronounce it in Cairo "'asab," is considered to be one of the +greatest restorers for those who from weak health or excess are what we +call in modern phraseology "run down"--perhaps as pleasant, plentiful, +and economical a medicament as could be used. It is a common sight for +the European to see the poor, patient, overladen, and underfed donkeys +coming into Cairo every morning heavily laden with the juicy caries that +have been grown in the neighbouring fields. + +It will be observed in the above rotation that a crop of clover precedes +and succeeds the cotton. + +We now proceed to a technical statement of the treatment of an Egyptian +farm; not merely a description of farming in Egypt, but of the +management of a farm based upon the careful observations of one who has +passed many years in the Delta and has made the cultivation and cropping +of its peculiar soil a thorough life study. In fact, the tracts of land +under his superintendence offer themselves as specimens worthy of +copying by all who seek to make the land of Egypt profitable and well +paying in return for the capital, large or small, that may be invested +there. This being said, we at once plunge again _in medias res_, and, +at the risk of being too formal and technical, recapitulate the crops in +their order. Cotton. + +Followed by Clover, or Beans, or both. + +Followed by Fallow, or catch crops of Maize or Water Melons. + +Wheat and Barley. + +Followed by three months' fallow, or Maize, main crop, and catch crop of +Sesame. Clover--"Fachl" on land after Maize and Clover "Miscowy" after +Fallow. Then Cotton. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +We will take an estate of three hundred acres, and on inspection, say in +the month of March, the crops occupying the land under the following +rotation will be as under:-- + +Three Years' Rotation. March. + + 100 Acres Cotton + 50 acres Clover + 50 acres Beans + 80 acres Wheat + 20 acres Barley + +Two Years' Rotation. March. + + 150 Acres Cotton + 30 acres Clover + 40 acres Beans + 60 acres Wheat + 20 acres Barley + +Within the last few years there has been a tendency to increase the +cotton crop and adopt the two years' rotation; but it is not a good +practice, as it tends to exhaustion of the soil, especially where there +is a want of farmyard manure. The cereal crops also suffer from the +consequent lateness of sowing. + +Two crops off the same land per annum: Wheat, sown November 15th, +harvested May 30th; maize, sown July 15th and harvested November 15th. +Or clover, sown November 1st, first crop January 1st, 3 pounds; second +crop March 15th, 3 pounds. Sow cotton in end of March. Ground clear, +November. Probable gross return per acre, 24 pounds. + +We might multiply instances where two separate crops can be grown on the +same land in twelve months, such as maize followed by potatoes, etc.; +but it may be safely stated that a very small area of a well-appointed +farm is allowed to lie fallow, the land being continually under some +crop or another. + +A few remarks on the before-mentioned crops as to cultivation:-- + +Cotton is the principal crop in the rotation, and gives far the best +monetary return, while at the present time reports from the Egyptian +Soudan are beginning to speak very highly of the alluvial tracts between +the White and Blue Niles as being more favourable to the growth of +cotton than the lower portions of the Nile Valley, while affording ten +times the area for the planting of this important staple that can be had +in the lower portions of the Delta. In fact, matters seem to prove that +Upper Egypt is going to develop into the finest cotton-growing country +in the world. + +The preparation commences in January, and generally three ploughings are +required to bring the land into a proper tilth. The more thorough the +cultivation the better for the crop. The land is then thrown into +ridges measuring from crest to crest three feet. Then a pair of ridges +is drawn across the longitudinal ridges, the distance between each pair +of ridges (which form a waterway) being twenty-two yards. Between these +pairs--_i.e._ eleven yards distance from each--a single ridge is made. +This acts as a partition to stop the water. Six ridges are irrigated by +allowing the water to flow from these cross-waterways, and the reason +for confining the length of the ridges to eleven yards is to ensure the +evenness of the irrigation as to height of water level, as the ground +may have slight fall, and if the whole length of the ridges were to be +watered at once the water would rise too high at the lower parts before +the higher levels were properly soaked. + +The sowing commences February 15th. Boys and girls drop the seed in +clusters of, say, twelve seeds in set-holes made by a pointed stick on +one side of the ridge, two-thirds from the bottom of the furrow, and at +a distance of sixteen inches between each set-hole. + +After "planting," the ridges are watered, care being taken not to allow +the water to rise to the level of the seed. Sufficient moisture for +germination is derived from capillarity. The seeds shoot and the plants +appear above ground in from ten to twelve days. Twenty-five days +elapse, and then a light hand-hoeing is given, while after fifteen days +more the plants are thinned, two or three being allowed to remain in +each set-hole. + +Immediately after thinning the young plants receive their first +watering. After, say, twelve days a second hand-hoeing is given, and +again after twelve days a third. Then comes the second watering, by +means of trench and canal. After an interval of ten days another +hand-hoeing is given, and this finishes the task, as the cotton trees +have attained a height which precludes the possibility of using the +implement. + +At intervals of from ten to fifteen days six waterings are given. This +brings the grower to the time--about September 10th--when the crop is +ready for the first picking. Women, boys, and girls pluck the cotton +from the trees. Eight to twelve of the workers may pick an acre per +day, and they receive as payment one shilling per 100 pounds. At the +conclusion of the picking the field is irrigated again, and after +twenty-five days the second crop is dealt with. Another irrigation +follows, time is given for development, and then comes the third and +last picking. + +The cotton trees are next cut close to the ground or pulled up by the +roots, and are utilised as fuel. + +An average crop on good land may produce 1,890 pounds of raw cotton, +which on being ginned will yield 600 pounds of fibre. The raw +cotton--_i.e._ in seed--is sold per 375 pounds at, say, 3 pounds. This +will gin out, say, 105 pounds fibre and 205 pounds seed; so that the +total worth of the crop may be estimated at 18 pounds, exclusive of the +value of the wood, which may be placed at 4 shillings per acre. These +figures are often exceeded where the cultivation is well attended to. + +Cost of raising one acre of cotton in Egypt. + ++===============================+=============+ +Y Ypounds s. d. Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YThree Ploughings Y 0 12 0Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YOne Ridging Y 0 4 0Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YDressing Ridges Y 0 2 0Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YPlanting Y 0 0 10Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YSeed Y 0 5 0Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YWages for Nine Irrigations Y 0 5 6Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YSix Irrigations by Pump Y 0 15 0Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YThree Irrigations by Free Flow Y 0 0 0Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YThree Cultivations by Hoe Y 0 7 0Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YThree Pickings Y 1 0 0Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YPulling Trees Y 0 3 0Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +Y Y3 pounds 14 4Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YFarmyard Manure and ApplicationY 0 10 0Y ++-------------------------------+-------------+ +YTotal Y 4 4 4Y ++===============================+=============+ + +The varieties of cotton grown in Lower Egypt are Mit-Afifi, Abbassi, +Yannovitch; in Upper Egypt, Ashmouni. + +Generally speaking, the quality of Egyptian cotton is of a high grade. +Its fibre is long, fine, and at the same time strong. + +Unfortunately this country has pests, not like the old Biblical plagues, +but which give much trouble and do a certain amount of damage to the +cotton crop. Among these are the cotton caterpillar and the boll-worm, +the former being propagated from eggs deposited by a moth, which do +great damage if allowed to hatch, by the larva feeding upon the plant. +If the leaves upon which the eggs are deposited are pulled and burned, +this mitigates the destruction so far as it is successfully carried out. +The boll-worm bores into and feeds upon the heart of the young bolls, +and thereby totally destroys them for the production of fibre. Up to +the present no remedy has been found to prevent the ravages of these +pests. The damage may amount to 20 per cent. Fogs and dews in the +month of October also cause injury to the bolls. + +*Beans after Cotton*.--This crop may be sown at any time during the +month of November, the earlier the better. The beans may be either sown +broadcast or dropped into the furrow, behind the native plough. The +quantity of seed required is two and a half bushels. The land must be +very moist, or an irregular germination of the seed will be the result. +The crop receives the first watering thirty days after sowing, or +immediately before flowering, and again when the beans have formed in +the pod. Harvest will commence about the middle of April. Men, women, +and boys pull the crop by hand, breaking the stalks close to the ground, +sometimes uprooting them, but a small serrated hook is also used to cut +the stalks. Six hands will reap one acre per day, and the payment is in +kind, at the rate of one sheaf per thirty. The crop is then carted to +the threshing-floor, spread out to dry, and threshed by the Norag; or, +as modern implements are creeping into use, by a steam threshing machine +made by one of the famous English firms. + +This crop does not receive any manure, but requires a rich, heavy soil, +when under favourable conditions a yield may be expected of from +twenty-five to thirty-five bushels per acre--price per five bushels, 1 +pound. Occasionally this crop is damaged by hot blasts--"Khamsin +winds"--which shrivel the bean, especially if they occur when it is +soft. We have also the pest of broomrape; and if badly infested by this +weed, great destruction follows to the crop. Beans are the main feed of +working bullocks, milch cows, and donkeys. + +Catch crops, on land after beans. + +*Maize (summer)*.--Sown end of April, ready to be pulled after sixty +days. This crop is consumed by the natives, who roast the cobs. Cost +of raising one acre, 2 pounds 10 shillings, exclusive of rent. Gross +value of crop may be approximately 10 pounds. + +*Water Melons*.--Sown at the same date, ripe after eighty days. Cost of +raising, 3 pounds 10 shillings. Probable value of the produce of an +acre, 12 pounds. After these crops have been harvested the land is +fallowed for three months. During the fallow it receives two or three +ploughings, and is flooded with water to prepare it for sowing the +cereal crops. + +*Egyptian Clover (_Trifolium Alexandrinum_)*.--After Cotton.--This crop +may be termed the preserver of Egyptian agriculture, since, as +previously alluded to, it provides pasturage for horses, cattle, sheep, +camels, mules, and donkeys, for a period of seven months, and also +taking into account its beneficial effects on the soil, restoring +fertility by root residue containing nitrogen. Sown in the end of +October amongst the standing cotton trees, the seed falls upon the newly +irrigated soil and takes root, no covering being required. Sixty pounds +of seed is sufficient for an acre. The first crop should be ready for +pasturing at the beginning of January; second crop, seventy-five days; +third crop, forty days; fourth crop, thirty-five days' interval. + +This variety is named "Miscowy," and stands copious watering. The first +and second crops contain about eighty per cent, of moisture. The third +crop may be made into hay, and the fourth crop--part only--may be +threshed to furnish seed. The gross weight of the four crops, cut +green, may be estimated at thirty tons, or five tons of hay. The +work-bullocks, cows, buffaloes, horses, etc., are tethered by a rope +attached to their fore-legs and fixed to a peg driven into the ground, +the cattlemen moving the animals forward as required. The cattle lie +out at night while pasturing on the clover. + +If the crop of clover is near a large town where dairymen require green +pasture, the price per feddan, to be consumed on the land, may be put at +4 pounds, 3 pounds, 3 pounds 10 shillings, 3 pounds 10 shillings for the +four crops, or a total of 14 pounds. Growers are sometimes troubled by +attacks of cut-worms, which ravage the young shoots of clover; but +flooding with water often destroys the pest. There is also the +parasitic weed Dodder (_Cuscuta Trifolii_), which occasionally does +damage to the crop. The cost of five bushels of clover seed varies from +one pound 10 shillings to 3 pounds 10 shillings, according to supply and +demand. The variety "Fachl" clover occupies a separate place in the +rotation, and will be treated later. + +*Wheat*.--Varieties: Common wheat, Bocchi, and Indian. The Bocchi, a +white wheat, is extensively grown. The third, a reddish wheat, has +recently been introduced from India, and gives good crops. Egyptian +wheats are hard, but are deficient in albuminoids. Unfortunately, care +is not taken in selecting the seed, and many samples are badly mixed +with red and white varieties. The crop is sown on fallow land after +clover and beans. The land, previous to sowing the seed, has received a +watering. Fifteen to twenty days after, the seed--two and a half +bushels--is sown broadcast, and is ploughed in by the native plough. +The sowing is very often imperfectly performed, the distribution of the +seed being very irregular. The next process is rolling by drawing a +baulk of wood (see illustration), three yards long, over the land; then +ridges are made seven yards apart to regulate the even distribution of +water. + +Somewhere about twelve days after the sowing the shoots appear above +ground, when the "braird" is about four inches high. Occasionally there +is an attack of "grub," or cut-worm; but the damage is never serious, a +watering destroying the pest, and some seed sown on the blanks caused by +the worm soon make good the damage. Rolling with a press roller has +been found to materially stop the destruction. Eighty days after +sowing, or when the crop has attained a height of two feet, it receives +its first watering; forty days afterwards its second and last. Sixty +days after the final irrigation the crop will be ripe for harvest. The +method of harvesting--reaping--is by small hand hooks, men, women, and +boys turning out to work at midnight, reaping till seven a.m., +subsequently gathering the unbound sheaves into rows, and afterwards +gleaning, finishing up about nine a.m. + +The foremen then distribute to the reapers one sheaf for thirty-five, as +payment in kind. The reason for reaping the crop by night is that, if +performed in the daytime, while the heat is great, the grain would shed, +the dews at night preventing this loss. Reaping by self-binders has +been tried, but the shedding of grain was excessive, as they could only +be worked in the daytime; while the farm labourer was not qualified to +work such a complicated machine. Labour is so cheap that it is not +necessary to resort to labour-saving machinery. The sheaves (unbound) +are transported from the fields to the threshing-floor by camels, carts +drawn by oxen, or mules. The sheaves are then placed in a circle +measuring twenty yards in diameter. Four, five, or more pairs of oxen, +each pair attached to a Norag, circle round on the top of the grain, and +when it has been threshed out and the straw cut and bruised by the +revolving discs and the feet of the oxen, it is thrown into a heap in +the centre. Fresh sheaves are added to the circle as they arrive. When +all the grain has been threshed the next process is the winnowing by +throwing the cut straw and grain into the air vertically by means of a +five-pronged wooden fork. The cut straw, _Tibn_, is carried by the wind +to a distance, while the grain falls near to the operator. + +The payment to the winnower is at the rate of fourpence per five +bushels. Threshing and finishing machines, made in England, similar to +the one illustrated, are used on all the large estates, and perform the +work quicker and cheaper than the Norag, and of course they are much +cleaner, the straw not being trampled and defiled. They are +complicated, owing to the fact that the straw must be chopped and +rendered soft to the touch, as the oxen will not eat it when it is not +bruised--a serious matter, this, in a country where cattle are almost +entirely fed upon straw. It might be argued that, as in England, the +wheat and other stalks might be cut up by machinery into chaff; but the +explanation is simple. The haulm or stalk of cereals in a hot country +like Egypt grows harder and more woody than that of colder climates, and +when simply cut up into chaff the product is so harsh that the +unfortunate animals find that it soon produces soreness of the mouth, +and reject it in consequence as being unfit for food. The sample of +grain after being threshed by the Norag is often, however, mixed with +particles of earth, as some of the crop has been pulled up by the roots. +But as most of the wheat is consumed in the country the people do not +object to a dirty sample. + +The total value of one of these crops may be taken at nine pounds 10 +shillings per acre. The cost of raising one acre of wheat, ploughing, +labour, watering, up till harvesting, may be estimated at one pound 10 +shillings, and the yield may be thirty-five bushels grain and one and a +half tons straw. The weight of grain per imperial bushel is sixty-four +pounds, and the price per five bushels one pound. Algerian and Italian +wheats have been tried, and the results have been fairly encouraging. +English varieties have also been experimented with, but invariably have +resulted in failure through bad germination. + +*Barley*.--The native variety, Baladi, is mainly grown. The head is +four-rowed, and about two and a half inches long. It is sown in +November and December. Seeding, the same as for wheat. Seed, two +bushels per acre. First watering, sixty days after sowing; second and +last watering, fifty days after the first. Harvest commences April +15th. Reaping the same as for wheat. Cost of raising one acre, one +pound 5 shillings. Yield of a good average crop, sixty bushels grain +and one and a quarter tons straw. The weight of grain per bushel is +fifty-seven pounds, and the price ten shillings per five bushels. Total +value per acre, 7 pounds 10 shillings. The barley is fed to horses +mules, donkeys, and camels, while the natives make it into bread after +mixing it with wheat in equal proportions. Egyptian barley grown in the +Delta is not good for malting purposes, the grain not being "plump." In +1893, by way of experiment, a few foreign varieties were grown in Egypt, +principally with a view to providing a good malting sample. + +Scotch Chevalier barley gave the best results. A sample from the crop +of 1895, grown from seed raised in the country, was awarded the first +prize for barley grown out of England at the Brewers' Exhibition, +London. + +The yield was not so heavy as with native barley, being as eight is to +twelve; but it furnished more straw. The money value in England was +Chevalier, 1 pound 9 shillings, as compared to 17 shillings for native +barley; but the European barleys are more difficult to grow, and if not +reaped before becoming dead ripe the heads break off and fall to the +ground. + +Barley is grown on the Libyan Desert (Mariout), west from Alexandria, +and is entirely dependent on the rains in winter. It is sown by the +Bedouins in October--to await the rains which may fall in November or +December--and also after a rainfall. As the Bedouin is not an +agriculturist, he scatters one and a quarter bushels per acre, and +scratches the ground by the aid of a small plough, to which is yoked a +camel or donkey. + +This soil is of a rich yellow colour, sandy loam, fine level tracts of +it extending to a thousand acres or more. To obtain a good supply of +water, wells are dug to a depth of forty feet or so, and the supply is +fairly good. Perennial irrigation can be resorted to by means of these +wells. + +If the rains are propitious, the Bedouin may reap crops of barley, with +extremely varied returns, running, as they do, from two and a half to +twenty bushels per acre, the price received on the spot being 15 +shillings per five bushels. Ninety per cent, of the barley goes to +England for malting. + +Next come, in the rotation, + +*Maize (Nileh)*.--Main crop on land after cereal crops. Sown end of +July. Seed, about one bushel per acre, dropped in the furrow by a boy +immediately behind the plough. First watering, twenty-five days after +sowing; second fifteen days after; third twelve days, fourth twelve +days, fifth ten days, sixth eight days, and seventh eight days, seven +irrigations being necessary in this dry and thirsty land for the +production of the crop. One cultivation is given by hand hoe after the +first watering. The maize grows quickly, attaining to a height of seven +feet, and occupies the ground one hundred days. Cost of raising, two +pounds 6 shillings. Yield per acre, fifty bushels; value, 8 pounds 10 +shillings. + +Maize is a most important crop in Egypt, as upon this grain the natives +depend for the bulk of their food. Ground into flour and mixed with +Fenugreek seed, it is baked into bread. Five varieties of this grain +are grown, but the best kinds are known by the natives as "Baladi," +"Biltani," and "Nab-el-Gamal." As Indian corn is a surface feeder a +liberal application of farmyard manure is necessary to secure a full +crop. Harvest begins in the middle of November. The stalks are cut and +carted to the threshing-floor. Then the cobs are pulled from the stalks +and spread out to dry for thirty days, when they are put into the +granaries. To separate the grain from the cobs, hand shellers are +employed, or it is beaten out by sticks. + +For a catch crop on land after wheat and barley, Sesame may be sown in +the beginning of June. There are two varieties, the Red and the White. +Six pounds of seed will sow one acre, broadcasted and ploughed in by the +native implement. The duration of the growth is five months. The crop +receives one hand-hoeing and five waterings. It is harvested in October +before it becomes dead ripe, to prevent the shedding of seed. Sesame is +grown for the sake of the oil, which it yields to the extent of over +fifty per cent. This oil is used for domestic purposes, especially by +the upper class Egyptians. The production of seed per acre is about +twenty-five bushels, valued at 13 pounds. + +In some parts of Upper Egypt a great deal of land is sown with the +Dourra (_Holcus douta_), which is largely consumed by the peasantry, +forming, as it does, one of their staple foods. It is a very useful and +suitable plant. It is sometimes eaten like maize or Indian corn in a +green state, being previously roasted on the fire, or green like +sugar-cane. Its pith, when dried, is used as starch; while the leaves +make excellent provender for cattle. + +We now have to consider the last crop in the rotation, namely clover +preceding cotton. As part of the land after wheat and barley has +remained fallow, and advantage has been taken to level, clean, and flood +with Nile water rich in deposits, "Miscowy" clover is sown broadcast, +when the surface of the land is covered with three inches of water. As +the water sinks into the soil the seed germinates upon the surface, +which is now composed of fine silt. Sown in the middle of September, +the first crop should be ready for cutting or pasturing about November +5th. During the period of growth the crop has received three waterings. +Immediately after the clearing a watering is given, and the second +cutting should be ready in seventy days. After eating off, the land is +ploughed for the cotton crop. + +"Fachl" clover is stronger in the stem than that known as "Miscowy," and +grows as a tall, luxuriant crop. It is sown amongst the stalks of the +maize in the end of October, the land having previously been watered, +and by the time the maize is ready for cutting, the clover has attained +a height of five inches. The crop should be ready for cutting about the +middle of January. Generally it is disposed of by the acre--to be cut +and removed from the land, and sold in bunches to be fed to carriage +horses, precisely as the green tares and clover are brought into London +in bunches during the spring time of the year. The value of one cutting +is 5 pounds per acre. Unlike the "Miscowy" variety, the "Fachl" only +yields one crop, as the roots fail. The land is then broken up for the +crop of cotton. This finishes the three years' rotation. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +It will be interesting to add a few remarks on a system of cultivation +which is practised on tracts adjoining the Desert. The land has been +purchased at a price of, say, 17 pounds per acre, and the next +proceeding has been to level it--by the free use of the Cassabia, or +scraper, which, in roughest preparation, is drawn over and over the sand +and guided something after the fashion of a plough--and then bringing it +into communication by canalising with the nearest distributor of the +Nile water, while in this country of exceedingly cheap labour the cost +of these preparations for cultivation may be set down at about 10 pounds +per acre. + +This done, the purchaser has the option of carrying on the cultivation +himself, or letting it to the fellaheen, who will take it readily and +pay a rent of 4 pounds per acre or feddan. + +The fellah now crops his land as follows, and the reader will notice the +variation in the products the native causes his fields to bring forth. + +He begins with: + +*Earth Nuts (_Arachidis_)*.--Sown from April 1st till July 1st. +Duration of crops, six months. Water every five days till high Nile, +when no water is required. Yield per acre, sixty bushels, value 10 +pounds. + +*Sesame*.--Yield, fifteen bushels; value, 7 pounds. + +*Chick Peas*.--Sown from April 1st to July 1st. Duration of crop, six +months. Yield per acre, thirty bushels; value, 6 pounds. + +*Maize (Oswego)*.--Sown March 15th till April 15th. Duration of crop, +seven months; value of crop, 9 pounds. + +*Potatoes*.--First crop planted October. Duration, three and a half +months. Yield, three and a half tons; 17 pounds 10 shillings. + +*Potatoes*.--Second crop planted February 15th. Duration, three months. +Yield, three and a half tons; 17 pounds 10 shillings. + +*Lupins*.--Sown November 1st. Duration of crop, seven months. Average +yield, fifteen bushels; 2 pounds 8 shillings. + +Clover, barley, beans, Syrian maize, and henna, a dye plant. + +To begin with, the land is here generally pure sand, but after flooding +with Nile water, which is often available without pumping--_i.e._ free +flow--the sand gets mixed with the Nile mud and a good soil is rapidly +formed. + +*Sugar-Cane*.--This, one of the most interesting products of the Eastern +soil, beautiful in form, and attractive in every stage, from its early +green growth through the tasselling, or flowering, up to the time when +the swelling cobs are changing from their attractive green to golden +yellow, amber, and brownish or purple black, is cultivated both in Upper +and Lower Egypt. It is grown in two varieties, the native and the +Greek, and the colour of the ripened canes forms a gradation, passing +from light yellow through striped red and yellow, and red. + +The cultivation is, as stated, principally carried on in Upper Egypt-- +for the manufacture of sugar. If it is planted in the Delta it is for +sale to the natives, by whom it is consumed raw, and by sucking the +juice. The farmer who plants his land with sugar-cane begins by +thoroughly well preparing the soil, and ridges it as if he were about to +plant potatoes, these ridges measuring about thirty inches from crest to +crest. + +The canes are cut into lengths of one yard, placed in the furrow, and +covered with the soil. Planting commences in February, the ridges being +watered immediately after, and the young shoots appear after twenty +days. The crop is watered every fifteen days, and at longer intervals +after the Nile has risen. The land is hand-hoed three times, and the +cane should be ready for cutting in December and January. The value of +an average crop sold standing--in Lower Egypt--may range from 20 to 25 +pounds per acre. Then the trashings covering the ridges are burned, a +watering given about the beginning of March, and the old roots sprout +again, when there is a second crop, and again the following year by +repeating, a third crop from the one planting. The third crop is not so +profitable, as the roots become exhausted. The sugar-cane requires a +liberal dressing of manure each year. The yield of trashed canes may +run from six tons the first year, five tons the second year, and four +tons the third year, and the percentage of sugar may be estimated from +fourteen to fifteen per cent. + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +Rice is extensively cultivated in the districts of Rosetta, Damietta, +Fouah, and Facous; but it is the opinion of a very excellent authority +that rice cultivation and the growth of this grain, which is seen at its +best in the swamps of Asia, will gradually die out of Egypt and become a +thing of the past. For, given ample water and a level of mud in which +the planter may thrust in the plant in its early green state of blades, +an abundant crop is pretty sure; but now that Egypt is becoming more and +more in a state of transition, with good drainage extending, and modern +applications at work for the proper washing and purifying of a soil that +is impregnated with salt and soda, this country will no longer be the +paddy field of yore, and the culture of rice may well be relegated to +the mud swamps of the countries farther east. + +There is no cause for regret here, for, in comparison with those easier +of production, rice is far from being one of the best crops that can be +sown. Among farmers and gardeners there is a term known as sickness of +the land, marked by a want of vigour in its productions; and in Egypt +this may be produced by the want of that great sustainer of plant life, +decaying vegetable matter, or the impregnation of the soil with some +form of salt, soda in the main. + +With the improved farming now going on, the natural soil, which was once +ready enough in its production of rice, is rapidly changing its +character, constant tillage, the flooding and washing which carry out +the efflorescing salts, and the constant addition of vegetable manures, +aided by one or two crops of clover, being the agents which are working +this alteration. + +There are five varieties of rice grown in Egypt, namely Sultani, Fino, +Sabeini, Indian, and Japan. In regard to quality, the Fino occupies the +first place. + +The sowing commences in the middle of April, and continues till June. +The crop occupies the land from three to six months, according to the +variety grown. The rice for seeding is put into water for twelve days, +then taken out and drained for two more. It is subsequently emptied out +of the sacks on to a floor and covered with hay, to remain four days +till heating and germination take place. Then the seed is sown on the +land, which is covered with four inches of water, this being drained off +after three days, leaving the seed for twelve hours exposed to the sun. +Then water is allowed to flow on to the plot once more, and a portion to +drain off, the surface at this later stage always having a covering of +from four to five inches in depth, so that the irrigation is always +fresh. This is continued during the growth of the crop. + +The harvesting is in October and November, and the yield of an acre may +average fifty bushels of Paddy, which, when shelled, or husked, will +give twenty bushels of clean rice, valued at 6 pounds 10 shillings per +twenty bushels. The straw may be estimated at a ton per acre, and be +valued at one pound per ton. + +Rice is one of the chief foods of the Egyptian, and it is an excellent +crop to grow on newly redeemed land, provided that water is abundant; +for the soil is impregnated with salt, and after a few crops have been +taken off the land becomes "sweet," in consequence of the perpetual +flooding. It can then be cropped with clover and cotton, but requires +much labour in the way of weeding, transplanting to fill up blanks, and +attention to irrigation. After paying rent and working expenses the +margin of profit is not great. The size of the plots ranges from half +to one and a half acres. The patches are encircled by drains or +ditches, which discharge into the main irrigating system. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +If armed with the little enterprise and capital necessary for making a +commencement in farming or growing fruit and vegetables in Egypt for the +market, a cultivator would find that land could be obtained within easy +reach of the great towns of the Delta--Cairo and Alexandria--at a very +moderate price; but it is only right to add that this price, consequent +upon the great irrigation schemes in progress, is still rising by leaps +and bounds. For the soil, where reachable by the flood waters of the +Nile, now conserved and carried in every direction by irrigation canals, +is practically inexhaustible, and, as previously stated, is often of +great depth. + +The land is to be purchased with proper titles and registration, giving +the necessary security to an alien who is desirous of making his home in +the Delta, or rented, if preferred, at a moderate consideration, +including water for irrigation. The country is well policed, there is +freedom from contact with the inhabitants of the surrounding desert, and +a cultivator would have to deal with a quiet, docile people, fairly +industrious--that is to say, lovers of work after the fashion of the +calm, placid Moslem, who takes life as it is, and seems to make it one +of his tenets that there is no need to hurry. + +He possesses none of the hurry and rush of Western civilisation; but, on +the other hand, he is patient, ignorant, fairly teachable, and willing +to work for exceedingly moderate daily payment. The supply of this +labour under a kindly, solvent, and honestly paying master is abundant +and never fails. + +The illustrations of the fellaheen farm labourers and their wives are +typical of the class of people with whom he would have to deal, and if +the new adventurer objected to the class of hut they occupy, and had +lofty ideas about model dwellings and the introduction of lighter +implements in place of the clumsy, adze-like hoes with which they are +armed rather than furnished, the advice given to him would be to follow +that of the old Latin proverb, "Festina lente," and go by degrees in +that, as in most of the other matters of culture, for it takes time to +alter custom and change old-fashioned routine. + +It may be here added that all great advance and reversals of custom +should be cautiously attempted with the land. Still Nature is easier to +deal with than man, and less likely to resent alteration when attempted +by a practised hand. + +As a whole, for the encouragement of those who wish to try the +experiment in a foreign land, let them understand that farming in Egypt +is child's play compared to that in Great Britain. There are no wet hay +and cereal harvests, there is neither snow nor frost to damage the +crops, no high winds, no floods, no ground game to do mischief: + +In the season of hay-making, with no possibility of a drop of rain +falling, the fellah makes the worst of all hay by allowing it to be +burnt to an indigestible fibre--would that he had a training in the +uncertain climate of Great Britain! The wheat is harvested when dead +ripe. Part may be cut, and part may be allowed to remain for six weeks +without deterioration. A contrast this to the harvests in bonnie +Scotland, where the corn has lain sodden until it has rotted away in the +deplorable weather of the year 1903. + +There is a good old proverb that is applicable to most things--certainly +to farming in Egypt. It is that "the less there is to do, the worse it +is done." Verily it is so here. Nature is most kindly, and with ample +moisture, abundant fertilisation, and plenteous sunshine, she does +pretty well half of the fellahs' work thoroughly well, while their half +to complete the operations is carried out with a careless indifference +to success that is deplorable. The people's wants are few, and now that +under a generous rule they have liberty and payment for the work they +perform, they seem quite content to plod on in easy slothfulness. +Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof, so why wear themselves out +by toil and the struggle for things better than those which surround +them? + +All this in connection with the possibilities of this country raises the +question, Can the practice of Egyptian agriculture be improved? + +The answer of one who has toiled amongst the people for years, whose +work has been that of reclaiming tracts of desert land, making endless +experiments as to the best suited crops for Egypt and the best ways of +producing them, is: Emphatically, yes! + +THE END. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Khedive's Country, by George Manville Fenn + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE KHEDIVE'S COUNTRY *** + +***** This file should be named 34245.txt or 34245.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/4/34245/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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