16 NOTES ON EGYPTIAN AGEICULTUEE. 



It may be mentioned incidentally that sheep in Egypt are of a very 

 poor standard. There are several breeds or divisions of breeds known 

 by local names, but the accompanying illustration (PL III, fig. 1) will 

 give an idea of the type of animal found in the country. The sheep 

 live on anything they can procure, and are allowed to run over the 

 clover after the cattle have been tethered on it. A fair sheep weighs 

 about 100 pounds live weight, though the better class fed by some 

 cultivators weigh more. 



SEASONS. 



Agriculturally three seasons are, as already mentioned, recognized 

 in Egypt, viz, winter, summer, and Nili. During the former, extend- 

 ing from November or December to March, wheat, barley, beans, 

 clover, etc., are sown in Lower Egypt, and also flax, lentils, onions, 

 vetches, etc., in Upper Egypt. The summer crops are cotton, sugar 

 cane (chiefly in Upper Egj'pt), rice, and summer sorghum (Upper 

 Egypt), while during the Nili season corn and rice, together with 

 flood sorghum in Upper Egypt, are the principal crops. 



COTTON. 



Of all crops cotton is preeminently the most important; it, in fact, 

 in great part constitutes the agricultural wealth of Egypt. Its cul- 

 tivation commenced about the year 1820, being simultaneous with 

 the introduction of perennial irrigation in the Delta of the Nile. 

 From this time the areas under cotton gradually increased, a great 

 stimulus having been given to its cultivation at the time of the civil 

 war in the United States and the consequent cotton famine through- 

 out the world. When more or less normal conditions were reestab- 

 lished Egypt did not, like many other countries, cease to show an 

 increase in its cotton area, but on the other hand continued to pro- 

 gress. Recent developments and improvements in the system of irri- 

 gation, as well as the expenditure of large sums of money on drain- 

 age, have given still greater facilities for cotton cultivation, until 

 there seems to be a growing tendency on the part of cultivators to 

 place too great a reliance on the "one crop," such as existed formerly 

 and is still often found in many cotton districts of the United States. 



The cotton area seems to increase annually, though in the absence 

 of a statistical bureau it is impossible to state what the area actually 

 is or what increase takes place yearly. It has been generally accepted 

 by the irrigation department that one-third of the land of the Delta 

 was occupied by cotton, though there can be no doubt whatever that 

 it is more correct now to assume that one-half of the land is planted 

 to this crop. The present area under cotton in Egypt amounts proba- 

 bly to between 1,500,000 and 1,750,000 acres, though the finance 

 department of the Egyptian Government gives as the area under cot- 

 ton in the year 1901-2, 1,275,676 acres, of which 1,169,106 acres were 



