18 BERSEEM.: FORAGE AND SOILING CROP OF NILE VALLEY. 



As a food for milch cows (PI. Ill, figs. 2 and 3) one can imagine no 

 sweeter or more delicate one, and from the samples of butter tasted on 

 Mr. Zervudachi's place at Kafr. Dewar. it must be a most excellent 

 milk producer. The large amount of water contained in the green 

 food, however, may influence unfavorably the quality of the milk, 

 making it poor in fats, and complaints in this regard were heard, but 

 certainly for tine flavor the butter tasted was equal to the finest Fin- 

 nish or Danish butter put on the London market. 



BERSEEM AS A HAY CROP. 



It would be a great mistake to underestimate the value of Egyptian 

 clover as a hay crop. Great quantities of the cut clover are cured 

 into hay or what the Egyptians call " drees" (PI. VI, tig. 3) and stored 

 for summer feeding, when a scarcity of green fodder makes the dried 

 hay very acceptable. 



Four to 5 tons of this freshly cut plant yield 1 ton of "drees," a 

 curious brittle hay, snapping between one's fingers like pipestems, and 

 apparently with scarcely any substance to it. 



In comparison with alfalfa the freshly cut berseem has 89.61 per 

 cent of water instead of 71.35 per cent, and only 3.11 per cent of fiber 

 in place of 8.11 per cent. The percentage of albuminoids is corre- 

 spondingly poor, being only 2.29 per cent as compared with 4.35 per 

 cent. But notwithstanding the 15 per cent larger shrinkage, the value 

 of the hay is sufficient to induce such men as Mr. Beyerle of the 

 Egyptian Credit Foncier to grow it in fields large enough for American 

 mowing machines (PL XI, tig. 3; PI. XIII and XIV) and sulky rakes 

 to operate in and by means of portable tramways to transport it to his 

 barns. (PI. V, tigs 2 and 3; PI. XIV.) No baled drees was seen, and 

 baling does not appear to be commonly done in Egypt. Owners of 

 properties some distance from the markets find it does not pay to grow 

 berseem on all of their land not occupied, but, instead, let many acres 

 go fallow. 



The yield of hay per acre would vary according to the variety and 

 cutting. Muscowi would yield for the first and second cutting If tons 

 per acre each and for the third and fourth about 1^ tons apiece, making 

 for the four cuttings of the season 6£ tons of dried hay per acre, which 

 is 2j tons in excess of the maximum yield given for red clover in 

 America, which is cut only twice/' 



CONCLUSION. 



In conclusion, the object of this bulletin is to call attention to a 

 remarkable crop which, in Egypt, is of the very greatest importance 



« Owing to lack of accurate data it was hard to ascertain the yield of drees per acre 

 in Egypt. None could be found who had actually measured it. The figures given 

 are those furnished by Mr. Bonaparte, of the School of Agriculture at Gizeh. 



