58 NOTES ON EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE. 



the water may not be run off for the first six or seven clays, and it 

 may be necessary to water every clay at the rate of 100 cubic meters 

 per acre under a nood system of drainage. After eight or ten days 

 tenants will employ all the water they can get, but this is not neces- 

 sary and is done at the sacrifice of good drainage. 



On salt land more water is necessary than if the soil is fairly sweet, 

 and at first it is necessary to irrigate and run off the water almost 

 daily, which means as much as 150 cubic meters per acre each twentj- 

 four hours. If sown later than the end of August, rice does not grow 

 so well, and any land remaining at that time may be sown with dineba. 



To obtain the greatest benefit from the growing of rice it shoidd be 

 followed by berseem. When the heads of the rice begin to curl up, 

 the berseem may be sown ; and if rice is sown as late as September, 

 the sowing of the clover is greatly delayed. 



The success of the berseem after i-ice is an indication as to the 

 extent of the removal of salt; and if the clover grows well, it will not 

 be necessary to sow rice again. If otherwise, it may be necessary to 

 resort to rice again. This system of reclamation without summer 

 water is that adopted by a very capable rice grower, to whom the 

 author is indebted for the information. 



As regards the yield of rice in Egypt, 40 to 00 bushels per acre may 

 be taken as an average of the summer crop on good land, while of 

 flood rice the product varies from 25 bushels on poor land to 50 or 00 

 bushels on more forward lands. 



ONIONS. 



Onions are grown to a considerable extent in Upper Egypt (not less 

 than 15,000 acres), largely on the islands which appear after the fall 

 of the Nile and on the banks of the river. They are also grown on 

 ordinary soils under perennial irrigation. Although two or three 

 varieties are recognized, that known as the Saidi forms the bulk of 

 the export trade. The crop grows to the greatest advantage on deep, 

 loam}^ soils, inclining to sandy, and possessing a considerable amount 

 of humus. 



Seed is sown in a manured seed bed in September. About one- 

 ninth of a bushel of seed sown on 350 square yards of land provides 

 sufficient plan Is for 1 acre. 



The land for onions should be well prepared by two or three plow- 

 ings, reduced to a friable condition, and made into ridges about 2 

 feet apart. The seedlings are pushed in the sides of the ridges (both 

 sides) by the fingers and are left about G inches jipai't. 



On the islands and river banks the land is not plowed at all, but 

 the seedlings are sown on the flat, either singly in rows about 14 

 inches apart or in bunches in row>s 20 inches apart. In this case the 

 crop is not watered during growth. 



The operation of transplanting is done in November and December 



