24 NOTES ON EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE. 



tlian from the bottom, and are spiudling. After the first watering, 

 which should he a light one, the water not reaching up to the plants, 

 but being allowed to ascend a little by capillarity to reach them, the 

 land is allowed to dry, and when sufdciently dried, another hoeing is 

 given. Some do not thin their cotton until after this hoeing. There 

 are cases (when the first watering is given at a short interval after 

 planting) where this may be advisable, but, generally speaking, it is 

 considered better practice, as already mentioned, to thin before the 

 first watering. 



The second watering is given about twenty-five or thirty days after 

 the first, and when the land is sufficiently dry another hoeing (this 

 being generally the third) is given. At each hoeing the soil is removed 

 from the top on the opposite bed and drawn up to the plants. ' As the 

 plants are planted on the side of the bed, the crest of the ridge is 

 above them. This crest is gradually brought over by the hoe to the 

 opposite bed, so that after the third hoeing the plants will be practi- 

 cally on the tops of the beds. (PI. V.) 



The third watering is given about twenty days after the second — 

 the end of May or l^eginning of June. This may be followed by 

 another hoeing, and generally speaking on good land the cotton, if 

 sown early, is now sufficiently far advanced to make any further 

 intercultural operations difficult. 



Waterings are now given more frequently, if possible, and during 

 the months of June, July, and August the crop requires approximately 

 two waterings during each inonth, but especially in the two latter 

 months. During the summer months of low Nile supply, however, 

 there exist what are known in Egypt as rotations of canals— that is 

 to say, a restriction is placed by the irrigation department on the fre- 

 quency of watering; otherwise the quantity of water available would 

 not be sufficient for the whole of the cotton crop. The watering of 

 fallow land is also prohibited by governmental decree until the Nile 

 has again risen sufficiently high to place the safety of the cotton crop 

 beyond question, and in some years of low supply the cultivation of 

 summer rice has also been prohibited. 



In the simplest form the rotation is as follows: A canal is divided 

 into three divisions. A, B, and C— A being the first section at the canal 

 head, B the middle section, while C is the section at the tail of the 

 canal. Each section was, for example, in the year 1001, allowed a 

 week's supply when it had fii-st claim on the water. If, however, 

 thei-e was any excess passing section A during its week of supply, 

 when it entered section B the latter was allowed to make use of it 

 during the last three days of A's period, but it must be understood 

 that B had no claim or right to the water. The same arrangement 

 holds good for sections B and C during B's week, and for C and A 

 during C's week. No difficulty can be experienced by this arrange- 

 ment during A's week and B's v/eek, but great caution has to be exer- 

 cised in giving section A permission to pump during C's week, as A, 



