278 



EGYPT. 



building, and cost 1,800,000, not taking into 

 account the forced labor by which mainly it was 

 constructed. The dams are pierced by arches, 

 61 on the Rosetta side, which has a length of 465 

 metres, and 71 in the Damietta barrage, with a 

 length of 535 metres. The arches are fitted with 

 gates, which are opened when the river is high 

 to allow the water as free a passage as possible 

 through the dam as well as over it, and can be 

 closed during the period of low Nile, so as to 

 hold the water back for distribution through the 

 Delta. The arches on the Damietta side were 

 never supplied with gates. The Rosetta barrage 

 was first tried in 1863, and held the water up to 

 a maximum height of 5 feet. Crevices soon 

 appeared, a section was undermined in 1867 and 

 fell in, and no attempt to use the barrage was 

 made thereafter. When Sir Colin Scott Mon- 

 crieff took charge of irrigation matters in 1883 

 he determined, against the advice of most ex- 

 perts, to give the barrage a trial before adopting 

 a scheme that was proposed for irrigating Lower 

 Egypt by means of pumps, at an expense of 

 ^50,000 a year, besides the initial cost of 700,- 

 000. In 1884 and 1885 rotten timbers and rusted 

 iron were replaced with new materials. In the 

 first year the water was raised to the level of 7 

 feet 2 inches, and in the second year the height 

 at the dam was 9 feet 10 inches, which enabled 

 the canals to be flushed, and resulted in a con- 

 siderable increase of irrigation. The success of 

 his experiment was such that when the powers 

 in 1885 consented to 1,000,000 being spent in 

 irrigation the first work undertaken was a thor- 

 ough and permanent restoration of the barrage. 

 A bed of Portland cement 4 feet thick was laid 

 at the bottom of the river, above and below the 

 barrage and under the arches, and this was cov- 

 ered wjth a stone pavement, while 85 feet up 

 stream a line of piling was carried across the 

 river. The Rosetta barrage was completed in 

 two seasons and the Damietta barrage in two 

 more. The work was finished in June, 1890, 

 having cost in all 420,000. 



Cotton Production. During the five years 

 in which the barrage was incomplete the cotton 

 culture was much extended and benefited by it, 

 the increase in the production, owing to this 

 cause, being more than 800,000 in annual value. 

 The area devoted to this crqp in Lower Egypt 

 was 770.423 acres on private land, 47,924 in the 

 Domains, and 5,847 in the Daira Sanieh in 1890. 

 In Upper Egypt there were 85,056 acres of private 

 land. 54,676 acres of the Domains, and 17,206 

 acres of Daira Sanieh under cotton cultivation. 

 The acreage for the whole country was 855,479, 

 showing an increase of 2,650 acres over the pre- 

 vious year. In Upper Egypt the lands are irri- 

 gated by the aid of pumps. The exports of cot- 

 ton, which in the time of Mehemet Ali were only 

 27,500,000 pounds a year, were during the Ameri- 

 can civil war 180,000,000 pounds, and from that 

 increased to an average of 300,000,000 pounds 

 for the past twenty years. In 1889-'90 they were 

 about 330,000,000 pounds. Out of a total of 10,- 

 000,000 or 11,000,000 of exports cotton and cot- 

 ton seed represent from 8,500.000 to 9,000,000, 

 leaving only 1,500,000 or 2,000,000 for sugar, 

 cereals, and all other exports together. The 

 cereal production has constantly diminished since 

 the decline iu prices, and of late rice has been 



imported from Burmah and maize and barley 

 from Syria. While the Government seeks to pro- 

 mote a diversified cultivation, the fellah cares 

 for nothing but the cotton crop, on which he de- 

 pends for his rent and land tax, and only limits 

 his acreage by the quantity of water that he can 

 complane. French critics are not alone in con- 

 demning the facilities that have been given to 

 cotton cultivation as a ruinous expedient. Al- 

 though the production of cotton has so largely 

 increased, the yield per acre has materially di- 

 minished. By the aid of irrigation the yield is 

 twice as large as in the United States, but this 

 rate of production can not be maintained with- 

 out replacing the constituents of the soil that 

 are necessary for plant nourishment and remov- 

 ing the injurious saline matters that accumulate. 

 For most of the crops that are grown in Egypt 

 the soil is constantly enriched by the red mud 

 that is deposited when the fields are flooded at 

 high Nile. At that season the cotton fields can 

 not be flooded without destroying the cotton, 

 and thus the most exhaustive of crops is grown 

 year after year without fertilization of any sort, 

 for manure is very scarce, and even the cotton 

 seed now all goes to foreign countries. Experts 

 say that the ground will soon become sterile un- 

 less the cotton lands are left fallow to be flooded 

 on alternate years. For sugar also the floods 

 must be shut out, and water supplied in the 

 season of low Nile, when it contains very little 

 silt. But sugar is no longer a remunerative 

 crop, and since Egypt has ceased to be a grain- 

 exporting country it is cotton alone that enables 

 it to pay the coupons of the bonds and buy all 

 that comes from abroad. The new works planned 

 by Sir Colin Scott Moncrieff and Col. Ross in- 

 clude a system of flood-water irrigation for the 

 cotton lands by which they will receive the bene- 

 fit of the red mud. It will be necessary to in- 

 duce the cultivators of a considerable district to 

 let their farms remain fallow in the seasons when 

 they are flooded. 



Anglo-Egyptian Commercial Treaty. A 

 new treaty of commerce was signed on Oct. 29, 

 1889, and went into operation nominally on Jan. 

 1, 1890, taking the place of the treaty of 1861 

 between Egypt and Great Britain that expired 

 on April 19. 1889. Under the terms of a firman 

 requiring all conventions to be communicated 

 to the Porte before being promulgated, it was 

 submitted to the examination of the Sultan's 

 Government, and was officially published on Feb. 

 15, 1890. Its provisions remain inoperative till 

 the other powers have concluded similar arrange- 

 ments. Its main feature is an increase in the 

 import duty from 8 to 10 per cent, on metals, 

 machinery, yarns, mixed fabrics, coal, rice, and 

 certain other articles. The right of the Egyp- 

 tian Government to fix the duty on every article 

 not included in this list is recognized, and an 

 increase in the tariff on alcoholic liquors and 

 other luxuries is contemplated. The right of 

 search for contraband is admitted, as also is the 

 right of municipalities to levy octroi duties on 

 drinks, provisions, fuel, and building materials, 

 but no duties can be imposed on goods in trans- 

 it or on patterns. In consideration of the ac- 

 ceptance of the treaty the Egyptian Govern- 

 ment promised to reduce the light dues from 

 85,000 to 40,000 Egyptian pounds. The treaty 



