12 



collected relating to the construction and cost of the devices employed, 

 their efficiency, and cost of operation. 



In Eg-ypt as in America the use of water on the iiigher lands has 

 ruined large areas of lower lands by raising the ground water, and with 

 it the alkaline salts from the subsoil. Work for reclaiming these alkali 

 lands has gone much farther in Egypt than in America, and Egyptian 

 methods were, therefore, studied with much interest. 



A GENERAL VIEW OF EGYPT. 



Northern Africa would be an uninterrupted desert from the Atlantic 

 to the Red Sea, except for a narrow strip bordering the Mediterranean, 

 if it were not for the Nile. As it is, there is only a thread of arable 

 land in the valley of the river, the surrounding desert being absolutely 

 barren. 



Egypt proper extends from Assuan to the Mediterranean. (See 

 map, PI. I.) South of Assuan is Nubia, which extends as far south 

 as Khartum. The valley of the Nile is very narrow. But little culti- 

 vated country is found from Assuan to Luxor; the width of the valley 

 between Assuan and Cairo varies from practically nothing to 9 miles, 

 and there are a number of places where the desert touches the Nile on 

 either bank, as at the point where the Gebel Silsileh hills cross the Nile. 

 Between P^dfu and Assuan there are many places where the drifting 

 sands from the desert arc encroaching upon the agricultural land. 

 From Assuan to Edf u, a distance of about 90 miles, the agricultural land 

 is about equally distributed on either bank. From Edfu to P^rment, a 

 distance of about 80 miles, the agricultural land is nearly all on the 

 western shore, having an average width of 3 miles. From Erment to 

 Assiut, over 200 miles, a large part of the agricultural land is on the 

 left bank. From Assiut to Cairo the agricultural land is practically 

 all on the left bank. At a point about 60 miles above Cairo the valley 

 reaches its maximum width of about 9 mile«, near where the Yusef 

 Canal crosses the Lybian Desert into the Fayum. The delta proper 

 begins some 12 miles l)elow Cairo, and is triangular in shape, being 

 nearly 120 miles on each side. The greater part of the irrigable land 

 of Egypt lies in the delta, l)ut only about half of the land that is 

 actually farmed at the present time is found there. The remaining 

 lands are being brought under cultivation by drainage and other 

 reclamation works. The total agricultural area of Egypt is 5,000,000 

 acres or about four times the area of the State of Rhode Island. 



The writer arrived in Alexandria in the early part of December, 

 1901. An Egyptian winter compares favoral)ly with a Colorado 

 summer. Everything is in summer garb, the vegetation being more 

 attractive than it appears during the preceding hot months. Even 

 the natives prefer the winter season, although they feel the chill of 

 the nioht air and sutler from an occasional shower. 



