46 NOTES ON EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE. 



average. Perhaps, however, the one fact which has militated against 

 the success of the crop has been the severe attaclcs to which it has 

 been subjected by worms. The most favorable time for the planting is 

 in summer, and attacks b}^ worms are at that time very common; in 

 fact, the beet crop has never escaped. Moreover, summer crops in 

 Egypt exhaust the land, and especially those which require much irri- 

 gation. In spite of the fact that the green leaves are turned under 

 after the removal of the crop, and that the land is in good condition 

 after tlie numerous hoeings, etc., received, a crop of cotton following 

 beets (in the Delta) always suffers and gives a poor yield. This has 

 been rei^eatedly brought out in experiments which have been made in 

 Lower Egypt. 



All the beets grown at present in Egypt are grown by the sugar 

 company in the upper division of the country and auiount to about 

 1,200 acres. The crop occupies the land about six months and is 

 practically always manured with nitrate of soda, which greatly 

 increases tlie yield. Tlie sugar content is high. 



BERSEEM, OR EGYPTIAN CLOVER. 



Berseem is tlie great leguminous forage crop of Egypt, and for lux- 

 uriance and rapidity of gi-owth is probably unequaled and certainly 

 not surpassed by any crop in the world. What P^gypt would have 

 been or would be without this crop is difficult to conjecture. It is cer- 

 tainly impossible to overestimate its importance. The growth of such 

 heavy crops of cotton, for example, with, comparatively speaking (and 

 especially so until recently), small quantities of manure, has only been 

 possible through the renovating influences of berseem. It has, in fact, 

 only been by the extensive growth of this crop that the maintenance 

 of the fertility of Egyptian soils has been possible. To state the-area 

 of land under berseem is extremely difficult, as it not only takes its 

 place in the ordinary rotation, but is also used as a catch crop, one 

 cutting, or it may be two, being taken before the sowing of cotton in 

 the spring. 



Berseem constitutes the sole food of working animals, cows and 

 buffaloes; in fact all farm animals during the months of its growth, 

 that is to say, from a period extending from December to early in June. 

 During the rest of the 3^ear, as already mentioned, there is almost a 

 complete absence of green fodder and a dry ration, composed of chop- 

 j)ed straw, beans, barley, etc., has to be resorted to. The want of a 

 summer forage croj) which will grow without repeated applications of 

 water is ver^Mnuch felt in the country. During the winter months no 

 other forage crop is grown ; indeed, it is difficult to see how any croji 

 could compete with it in universal use in the countr3^ 



Tliere are three recognized varieties grown in the country, viz, the 

 Muscowi, Fachl, and Saidi. The former is that grown on the peren- 

 nially irrigated lands of Lower Egypt, and the following remarks 

 apply to this variety. 



