18 



NOTES ON EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE. 



after berseem, while again they would be unable to dispose of such a. 

 quantity of clover were it grown. The small cultivator is, as already 

 mentioned, the raiser of cattle, and can always dispose of his clover 

 crop to advantage. 



Large administrations in Egypt are now using steam plows, and by 

 means of them the land is thoroughly plowed for cotton during the 

 autumn months to a depth of 12 inches. With this exception, how- 

 ever, the cotton area of Egypt is i)repared by means of the ordinary 

 native plow drawn by two bullocks. (See fig. 1.) As a general rule, 

 four plowings are given in preparation for cotton, each being at right 

 angles to the previous one. 



The plow is somewhat comparable to the " scooter" employed in the 

 United States for laying off the cotton rows. The beam, which is 



Ordinary native plow. 



made of wood, is about 10 feet long, while the part which projects 

 from it at an angle of about 25° is also made of wood, but shod with 

 iron, the weight of the whole being about 00 i^ounds or more. This 

 is the plow in almost universal use in Egypt, though on some areas 

 cultivated by Europeans a few modern plows, provided with mold- 

 boards which turn a furrow, are used. The nature of the plow does 

 not admit of the soil being inverted, but merely stirs it. The angle 

 between the draft jjole and the sole of the plow can be increased or 

 diminished by adjustment. 



It is laid down as an axiom by the best cotton growers that cotton 

 land should be j)lowed early and left exposed for some time. In a 

 practically rainless climate there is nothing to fear from the leaching 

 effects of rain, while it is universally accepted that cotton sown on 

 such land germinates better and grows more regularly. Growers are 

 fully alive to the necessity of deep and thorough cultivation, and some 

 careful farmers plow their land even more than four times. It must 



