COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 37 



it contains 16 to 18 per cent, phosphoric acid, usually about 4 cwts. 

 are sufficient for one feddan ; it is applied either after the last 

 ploughing or two months after sowing ; on poor soil 1501bs. of salt- 

 petre should come on one feddan, and lOOlbs. on good soil, as soon 

 as is possible after the thinning out of the young plants ; it is 

 specially advantageous for helping the young plants over the critical 

 time of their early growth. Ammonium sulphate is for this purpose 

 not much good, as it acts too late. 



The prices of artificial manure for one ton franco wagon 

 Alexandria were in the autumn of 1912 15^ per cent. Chile; saltpetre, 

 1,170; 16 to 18 per cent, superphosphate, 295; 43 to 47. per cent, 

 superphosphate, 820; 20 to 21 per cent, ammonium sulphate, 1,530 

 piastre tarif. 



The time for manuring differs considerably. Some spread the 

 manure over the land and plough it in before the ridges have been 

 thrown up. Others put manure in the furrows between the ridges 

 and cover it then with the remainder of the old ridges. Both 

 methods can be recommended, and are certainly better than the 

 method which is commonly in use, and consists in manuring only 

 after the sowing has taken place ; the manure is put either into the 

 ridges and hoed in with the " fass," or it is put in in handfuls directly 

 under the roots of the plants when they are a few inches above the 

 soil. The latter method requires much more labour, and does not 

 .give any special results. 



Since 1897 phosphate of a strength of 50 to 72 per cent, similar 

 In quality to that of Tunis has been discovered in numerous places 

 in Egypt, along the coast of the Red Sea, along the Nile, and in 

 the western oases. For the exploitation of these phosphate mines 

 a good deal of German capital is being employed lately. As long as the 

 phosphates are sufficiently disintegrated they are used without any 

 further preparation for manuring. 



In Upper Egypt two kinds of earth are used as manure, viz., 



' Tafia," which is a blue-black clay, containing nitrogen in the form 



of sodium nitrate, and " Marog," \vhich is used on account of its 



nitrogenous contents. Both these soils have considerable value as 



manure. 



THE ECONOMIC SYSTEM. 



Ownership of Land.- Formerly all land used to belong to the 

 Government; since ancient times all land was the property of the 

 Sovereign, and its use was subject to a payment of one-tenth, or of 

 a tribute. The privileged tithed land, or "Ushuri," which was taken 

 away from the original owners, after the subjection to Islam, and 

 divided among the successful conquerors, was relatively small, and 

 paid only a trifling tax. But most of the land was counted as the 

 higher-taxed, or "Karadshi" lands, which the triumphant Islam 

 allowed the original owners to keep, but this kind of land had to pay 

 high taxes to hereditary tax-collectors. Mohammed All declared by a 

 decree, in 1808, all titles of private landowners void and instituted 

 the Government as owner of all the land ; in 1813 he ordered the 

 whole land to be surveyed, and gave every peasant of age 3 to 4 fed- 

 dans of land, secured by title-deeds, for life. In 1854 a law was 

 passed for the heriditaryship of the use of the land, and after 1858 



