COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 21 



effective is the " Tabut," a kind of hollow wheel, which is driven by 

 cattle, and is met with all over the Delta ; it is best suited for a lift 

 of from 1 to 2 metres. The water from all these lifting apparatus 

 flows in furrows on to the field, and a cut through the ridge is 

 sufficient to let the water flow on to the lower-lying cultivated area. 



It is reckoned that one " Sakije " is sufficient for 10, and one 

 " Shaduf " for 5 feddans. 



Lately, modern hydraulic and steam pumps are being used more 

 and more ; the first steam pumps of an inferior quality were intro- 

 duced from England, as far back as 1862. To-day these plants, 

 improved in many ways, may be counted by thousands, and they have 

 displaced altogether the old method of raising water on all large 

 estates. These pumping plants are driven by stationary steam 

 engines, locomotives, and some by electricity ; they are largely sup- 

 plied by Rushton, Proctor, & Co., of Lincoln, by Clarens, Ltd., of 

 London, and by W. H. Allen, Son, & Co., of Bedford; next to these 

 come latterly those of Gebriider Sulzer, of Winterthur (Switzerland), 

 die Vereinigten Machinenfabriken, Augsburg-Nurnburg (Germany), 

 Otto, Deutz, and other German firms. The collecting of solar rays, 

 an American patent, has also been tried at Heluan for the purpose 

 of pumping water. Most of the pumping stations are worked by 

 ordinary locomotives, connected with a centrifugal pump which lifts 

 the water, and some owners of pumps are supplying against payment 

 water with these machines for the neighbouring fields of the fellaheen. 

 The construction and extension of the canals have not made the use 

 of the many different water-lifting contrivances obsolete, for it must 

 be borne in mind that the level of the stream is not everywhere high 

 enough to give a free flow irrigation to the fields. Water from 

 private pumps or private canals is sold to the fellaheen at about 

 ;E1 to EI% per feddan when the river is at its lowest level. 



The chief items of the German agricultural machines in Egypt 

 are locomotives, Diesel motors, and centrifugal pumps for watering 

 purposes ; the latter are well liked, in spite of their high prices, as 

 they require little coal for the amount of water which they raise. 

 Pumps of a low class are manufactured in the country. German 

 gas and petrol motors find an increasing sale on account of their good 

 quality, and in these, as well as in all kinds of agricultural machines, 

 the sale might be considerably increased. 



The agricultural exhibition at Cairo in 1912 included, amongst 

 other exhibits, a very powerful pump of A. Borsig, Berlin, which 

 was connected with a gas engine of the well-known firm of " Otto," 

 in Deutz (Cologne), whilst excellent locomotives of the firm of R. 

 Wolf, of Magdeburg, were driving centrifugal pumps of Klein, 

 Schanzlin, & Becker, of Frankenthal. G. Meinder & Co., of Frank- 

 fort, had also motors exhibited. 



The most important pumping stations are situated in Central 

 Egypt, in the eastern province of Giseh, where 45,000 feddans of old 

 basin land are being irrigated since 1909 by two large pumping 

 stations belonging to the Government; this land is now watered 

 throughout the year. 



Before that time private initiative had already given attention to 

 irrigation by working pumping stations on a commercial basis ; the 

 oldest of these companies is the Societe Egyptienne d'Irrigation, 



