THE COTTON CROP. 



17 



in the Delta and 100,570 in Upper Egj'pt. In any case we may state 

 that 90 per cent of the total cotton of Kgypt is grown in the Delta 

 proper, and for the purposes of this bulletin, when dealing with the 

 various l)ranches of cotton culture, the writer's observations will refer 

 to this region. 



Theoretically a three-year rotation of crops is practiced, though 

 this is in a great majority of cases reduced to a two-year course. 

 Originally on good land the rotation was as follows: 



Tliree-year rotation of crops formerly jn-acticed in Equpt. 



At present, however, it is more common to find the following system: 

 Two-year rotation of crojw at present practiced in Egypt. 



On poor land clover is grown more frequently and rice is intro- 

 duced instead of corn, or the land may be fallowed. The cotton crop 

 then generally follows clover or maize or a fallow. If it follows 

 maize, the land is left fallow from the time of cutting the maize in 

 October or November until cotton planting in March; or again, in 

 some cases, the land may be fallowed from the time of the removal 

 of the cereal crop in June until the following spring. If the land is 

 to be fallowed after the cereal crop, a heavy flooding is given with 

 the red water of the Nile, and when sufficiently dry it is plowed and 

 left exposed to the action of the sun and other atmospheric agencies 

 until the winter months, when the j)reparation of the land for cotton 

 is continued. If it follows maize, the land is i^lowed as soon as pos- 

 sible after the crop is removed from the ground, while if after clover, 

 the land is generally left until about a fortnight before cotton plant- 

 ing begins, when the soil is broken up and hurriedly prepared. 



Small cultivators who can not afford to leave their land fallow 

 occupy the land every moment, as it were. They scatter the clover 

 seeds among their standing maize before it is cut, and thus obtain 

 two crops of clover previous to cotton sowing. Owners of large 

 estates, however, adopt the fallow system^either a long fallow after 

 a cereal crop, a short fallow after a maize crop, or both. It would be 

 impossible for them to prepare a large area of land in time for cotton 



39210— No. 62—04 3 



