40 COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 



Latterly, even the fellaheen living on the edge of the desert have 

 been improving to a certain extent the sandy soil by repeated 

 cultivation of lucerne, which adds organic substances to it, and by 

 careful watering it. A good few feddans of culturable land have 

 been reclaimed in this way. 



The Government on the one hand wishes to increase the number 

 of small holders and gives them the preference in their 

 annual land sales, but on the other hand a large number 

 of fellaheen are annually sold up, as in spite of the repeatedly 

 reduced taxation, since the British occupation, the taxes are still 

 heavy, and as they have to suffer frequently from the payment of 

 usurious interest to moneylenders. To some degree this is caused 

 by the fact that the Egyptian fellah is accustomed to live without 

 making provision for a rainy day ; at weddings and other festivities 

 he incurs ridiculous expenditures ; as soon as he has money saved 

 up he buys new land on mortgage without considering maturely 

 whether he can afford to cope with the larger expenses caused 

 through the increased area. Thus the daily newspapers are full of 

 advertisements of bankruptcy sales. 



It is not only the native population who inhabit the fertile Nile 

 Valley, chiefly as fellaheen, but also the capitalists : Arabians, as 

 well as immigrated Syrians, Greek and Northern Europeans prefer 

 to invest their money in agriculture in Egypt, as they look upon 

 the possession of land as safe and remunerative. The large banks 

 also become temporary owners of land through the transfer of 

 mortgaged property. 



The land companies do not, as a rule, undertake the actual 

 farming. With the exception of the State Domains, and of a few 

 estates belonging to native landowners, there are in the black loam 

 district of Lower Egypt very few extensive cotton plantations under 

 direct European management, as they generally do not prove 

 remunerative, as will be explained in a later chapter. It is much 

 easier for large concerns to let the land than to farm it with the 

 help of daily labourers. 



The Aboukir Company, for example, which we have already 

 mentioned, is one of the oldest land companies, which, from its 

 original 30,000 feddans, owns to-day only 11,000 feddans; it leases 

 these on an average of ^5, and a family of five generally takes eight 

 feddans, of which four feddans must be grown with cotton each 

 year, which crop the Company takes over on account of the annual 

 rent, whilst the tenants may dispose of the other crops from the 

 remaining four feddans (clover, wheat, maize, and so on) at will. 

 .The tenant usually has two buffalo-cows, the milk of which brings 

 in about 30 per year, and the vicinity of Alexandria gives the 

 tenants a ready market for the sale of poultry, eggs, and vegetables. 

 The rent is amply covered, under normal conditions, from the 

 cotton crop. The Company pays the land' tax and controls the dis- 

 tribution of the water, but the tenants must look after the upkeep 

 of the canals and irrigation. 



Much more profitable to the companies than this leasing is the 

 work of land reclamation, which was undertaken from their very 

 beginning. Land was bought at a low price, improved, and then 

 sold or leased. In the low-lying northern provinces of Lower Egypt 



