COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 



39 



as regards number of owners and area owned, whilst all the middle 

 classes had a decrease, and the upper class an increase. Land 

 owned by foreigners had, since 1896, increased by 10 per cent., 

 whilst the number of foreign owners in consequence of the forma- 

 tion of European land companies had decreased. 



In 1910 the Ministry of Finance stated the distribution of land 

 among owners to be as follows : 



Of the total land 720,230 feddans were owned by foreigners, 

 and these foreign owners were sub-divided as follows : 



6,688 feddans. 

 5,619 

 9,544 

 7,963 

 14,499 



3,924 owners up to 5 feddans totalling 



751 , from 5 to 10 



10 to 20 

 20 to 30 

 30 to 50 



654 



322 



366 



1,561 



50 



675,917 



7,578 720,230 feddans. 



Of the 1,247,081 owners of land with less than 5 feddans,. 

 360,000 do not cultivate cotton. 



Small holdings.- There is no doubt the bulk of the land is in the 

 hands of the fellaheen, and as is the case almost everywhere, the culti- 

 vation of cotton is specially suitable for small holders. Except 

 the few large Domains in the Nile Delta where cotton is planted 

 uniformly on thousands of acres, we find chiefly small holdings, and 

 even those belonging to townpeople and being worked by day 

 labourers, are gradually becoming transferred to peasants, in conse- 

 quence of their ardent desire to acquire land, this possession being 

 considered up to now the only kind of wealth worth having. In these 

 land sales the mortgage banks were offering willing help, at least so 

 long as the price of land was rising so rapidly as up to the crisis of 

 1907. The areas which each one can call his own are very different in 

 quality of the soil and position of the land. Wealthy people own hun- 

 dreds of feddans, whilst the poor people only own a few "Kirats," and 

 work, as a rule, for a daily wage on the large farms. On an 

 average the fellah owns, in the most fruitful districts oif Lower 

 Egypt, 1 to 5 feddans. The small owner of about 3 to 4 feddans 

 farms his fields for his own account, with the help of his family and 

 a buffalo, but at the time of hoeing and harvesting he requires out- 

 side help. Women and children are useful in field work, but the 

 women are under certain restrictions owing to Mohammedan 

 customs. 



