29 



FARMS AND VILLAGES. 



The term '•village'' as used in Egypt refers generally to an area 

 of land surrounding and including a town. The farmers have their 

 dwellings in the towns. In the portions of Egypt subject to inunda- 

 tion the}^ are obliged to retreat to the towns during high water. A 

 frontao-e on the river or other source of water supplv is always desir- 

 able and these channels are generally boundary lines of farms, the 

 dimensions of which are as unusual as the tools used in cultivating the 

 ground. To enalile the greatest number to enjoy the advantages of a 

 water front the width dimension of the farm usually lies along the 

 river or canal. Where water channels do not exist it has become the 

 custom to establish a few lines by permanent monuments. These lines 

 then become the end boundaries of the fai-m. When a small area is 

 sold its length is the same as that of the original tract and its width is 

 laid oSl along the lines fixed by permanent monuments. As the area 

 owned or cultivated by each fellah is small, their farms are long and 

 narrow. A square piece of land containing the same area could be 

 worked to much greater advantage. 



The accompanying map (PI. VII) shows the sul)diyisions of the farm- 

 ing jands of the village of Talbia, near Cairo. The holdings are small 

 in the neighborhood of this village and the land is quite productive. 

 The areas of ten farms, selected more or less at random, ranged from 

 0.02 to l.Oi acres. 



Any small district throughout which the productiveness and there- 

 fore the rate of taxation is unusually uniform is known as a hod. The 

 farms of each hod are numbered independently. The official records 

 therefore may refer to farm No. lU, hod No. G, of the village of Tall)ia. 

 The maps compiled from government surveys show the farms and 

 hods with their numbers, permitting any particular farm to be identi- 

 fied. Fences are not provided along farm boundaries, as the}' would 

 occupy too much land. 



In the siu'veys for the finance ministry, villages are mapped inde- 

 pendently. It is almost impossible to make up from these separate 

 surveys a general map showing a number of villages, as the boundaries 

 of the villages are irregular and discrepancies always occur in approx- 

 imate work of this kind. A survey of the boundary between two 

 villages defined by a canal or other water course may be made during 

 the season of high water. At the time it may be impossible to locate 

 the water channel accurately on the map. If the adjoining village be 

 surveyed during low^ water, it is easy to see that maps made from the 

 surveys would not fit when applied to each other. Outside of these 

 surveys, the Government possesses little information regarding the 

 topography of the country-. 



Under the French occupation some general surveys were made, l)ut 

 no monuments were established. The English engineers are making 



