12 NOTES ON EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE. 



generally speaking, it would be difficult by quarrying in bulk to obtain 

 material containing as much as 5 per cent of nitrate. Of one fact, 

 however, there can be no doubt, viz, that it forms a most valuable 

 manure for a large tract of land, permitting better crops to be grown 

 in the basins and the raising of a profitable crop of millet, which with- 

 out it would practically be an impossibility. 



Farther north, on this inclosed land, the whole of the sugar crop of 

 Egypt is grown, and, including the Fayum, the Ashmouni cotton 

 crop. Nearly 600,000 acres of land are thus perennially irrigated, 

 chiefly by means of a large canal (Ibrahimia) taking its water direct 

 from the Nile. A branch of this canal waters the Fayum, a deep 

 depression in the desert which lies outside the Nile Valley, and is 

 divided from the river by a range of low hills. Through a break in 

 these the Nile water is admitted. The Fayum is the only oasis in 

 Egypt in direct communication with the river, and is surrounded by 

 desert on all sides. The canal which conveys water to the Fayum 

 is split up on entering the province into a number of radiating canals, 

 like the fingers of an outspread hand. 



The Ibrahimia Canal, completed in the year 1873, is the only peren- 

 nial canal in Upper Egypt which takes its water direct from the Nile. 

 It has a length of about 170 miles, and not only supplies summer 

 water to a large tract, but also water during flood to the basins. In 

 perennially irrigated tracts the seasons are divided, as in the Delta, 

 into summer, flood, and winter. 



The chief summer crops are sugar cane, cotton, and summer sor- 

 ghum, which occupy along the Ib)"ahimia Canal tract about one-half the 

 area. About 40 per cent of the land is under flood crops, which are 

 chiefly flood sorghum, rice, and corn, while the winter crops (about 

 60 per cent) are clover, wheat, barley, beans, etc. The cultivation of 

 these crops will be dealt with in detail subsequently, the few remarks 

 which have been made being merely intended to convey an idea of 

 the general system of agriculture in vogue in Upper Egypt. The 

 completion of the new reservoirs will bring large tracts of land under 

 perennial irrigation, and from what has preceded it will be gathered 

 how, under such a system, a much more intensive system of agricul- 

 ture is practiced. These reservoirs allow a great increase in the area 

 planted to such crops as cotton and sugar cane, while Lower Eg^i^t 

 will also receive its share of water to supplement the summer supply, 

 which is taxed to its utmost to irrigate the gradually extending cotton 

 area. 



In Lower Egypt, or the Delta, as already mentioned, perennial irri- 

 gation is practiced, by which is meant that the land is irrigated bj'^ 

 canals which supply water during the whole year. Under this system, 

 Egypt, favored with an excellent climate and a soil of great natural 

 fertility, may be reckoned ui3on to produce on an average as much 

 per acre as is possible in any quarter of the globe. When to these 



