AGRICULTURE IN THE NILE VALLEY 



73 



seconds. The bucket or skin may contain from one to five gal- 

 lons and so quite a generous quantity of water is raised by this 

 simple contrivance, limited only by the endurance of the operator. 



Sometimes the shaduf is large and worked by two men, but 

 more frequently- by one, who stands stripped to a loin-cloth, his 

 brown skin glistening under the combined influence of the exer- 

 tion and the sun, and the loads of water are delivered into the 

 thirsty throat of the tiny ditch with machine-like regularity. 



As the le\'el of the supply is lowered and the lift becomes in 

 consequence too great for a single machine, others are frequently 

 added at lower levels until batteries of three or four are installed, 

 sucking the last drops from the fast drying chain of stagnant pools 



Fig. 3. Shadufs and irrigated fields 

 near a village 



Fig. 4. A small cultivated bench be- 

 tween river and desert 



in the canal bottom and carrying the little life-gi\'ing stream by 

 consecutive steps to the crop abo^-e. Watering his land thus, the 

 Egyptian farmer has learned, through the experience of genera- 

 tions, all that can be learned about the saving of water. His seed 

 beds are small, often not more than 3 or 4 feet square, with tiny 

 borders formed and patted into shape with hoe and hand, and in 

 spite of the high rate of evaporation, one shaduf is made to suffice 

 for a surprisingly large area of ground. 



Under such a system of irrigation as that used in Egj'pt, the 

 main feature of which is the annual flooding of the land, a large 

 amount of conmiunity work must perforce be done. The clearing 

 out of the main suppl}' and drainage channels, the repair of dikes 



THE PLAXT WORLD, VOL. 17, XO. 3, 19U 



