B. P. I.-lOl. V. P. P. I.-116. 



NOTES ON EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Nature may be truly said to smile in the Valley of tlie Nile, and 

 ancient Eastern writers were never weary of soundinjj; the praises of 

 Egypt. From early times her antiquities have excitecl imagination 

 and curiosity, yet her system of agriculture is of still more ancient 

 date. 



Though the total area of Egypt proper is about 400,000 square miles, 

 only some 12,000 square miles are cultivated and settled. Agricul- 

 turally, the country consists of the Nile Valley itself, a comparatively 

 narrow strip of land on each side of the river, together with that part 

 known as tlie Delta, of which Cairo may be taken as the apex. The 

 width of the Nile Valley is variable; in some districts the desert 

 impinges on the river bank itself, while in others the valley may 

 attain a width of 10 or 12 miles. Its length is about 550 miles, and 

 the number of acres under cultivation and in process of reclama- 

 tion is about 2,320,000. This, roughly speaking, is the region Avhere 

 basin irrigation is practiced, while the Delta proper is under a s^^stem 

 of perennial irrigation. The number of acres under cultivation and 

 in process of reclamation in the Delta is 3,430,000, thus making a total 

 of 5,750,000 acres for the whole country. 



Basin irrigation, which has been typical of the country frOm earli- 

 est times, is now being gradually replaced by perennial irrigation, a 

 change which entirely alters the system of agriculture. It is needless 

 to say that at one time the whole of the country was under the basin 

 system, but about the year 1820 the Khedive, by excavating a num- 

 ber of deep perennial canals capable of discharging water during the 

 period of low water in the Nile, began that change which resulted in 

 a complete revolution of the irrigation system of lower Egypt. As 

 long, however, as the canals merely drew their water from the Nile 

 the supply naturally diminished as the summer advanced and the 

 Nile fell. 



In the year 1842 the Nile Barrage, which is situated about 12 miles 

 downstream from Cairo, was commenced. Here the Nile bifurcates. 

 Across the two branches two immense masonry bridges were built, 

 provided with sluice gates, by closing which the stream is dammed. 

 The level is thus raised to such an extent that 12 feet of water are held 



7 



