42 COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 



Not half of all the above companies were able to pay in the 

 last year a dividend, and their shares therefore stand mostly below 

 par, some very much lower, and especially is this the case with the- 

 companies established from 1904 to 1907, during the boom. 



The States Domains, or " Dairahs," w r ere pledged, in 1878, 

 from the lands belonging to the Khedive and his family to the Euro- 

 pean capitalists on account of several loans ; formerly these lands con- 

 sisted of almost one-fifth of the whole of the agricultural land. Since 

 the British occupation through the gradual sale of Dairah land the area 

 has been considerably reduced ;in 1907 these lands consisted of 145,540- 

 feddans, with an official value of ^E3, 157, 000, which, in 1912, were 

 free from debts and represented in round figures 5 million pounds ster- 

 ling. The Director-General of the States Domains is an Englishman, 

 Birch Pasha, who has rendered great services to Egypt. The total 

 population on the States Domains is, in round figures, 27,000, and the 

 profits of the Domains (which acts also to private farms as a 

 model estate) has doubled itself, owing to improved methods of 

 cultivation, from 1889 to 1897, and from 1900 the estate yielded a 

 surplus unknown up to that time. During the year 1909 the Domains 

 farmed directly only 29,000 feddans of land, the remainder of their 

 property, which is scattered all over the country, was leased or was- 

 lying fallow on account of lack of labour, and for other reasons. 



The land is mostly leased to contractors who guarantee the 

 payment of the taxes, and they re-let the land in small plots to 

 natives ; a small portion of the land only is let by the Government 

 direct to the natives. There is a feudal tenure system, and each 

 labourer receives from the Government 1 to 3 feddans of land on 

 which is a dwelling place, and the tenants are free from military ser- 

 vice. The annual rent for one feddan of land belonging to the States 

 Domain rose on an average from 80 piastres in 1898 to 105 piastres 

 in 1902, and in 1908 114,000 feddans of Domain land produced a 

 rental of ^200,000, or 176 piastres per feddan. In 1910, 2,000 

 feddans in the Santa district were let at ^ElO. Cotton and wheat 

 are the chief crops. 



The public auction sales of Domain lands, in the years from 

 1905 to 1909, at which preference was always given to the small' 

 farmers, showed that 6,572 feddans have been sold, and that a 

 gradual increase in the value took place. In 1905 this average was- 

 ;E39, and in 1909 ^E79. 



The present Khedive is still one of the largest landowners in 

 Egypt ; he has reclaimed thousands of feddans of land on the coast, 

 east and west of Alexandria, and is cultivating them. 



The finest model farm in the whole country is German ; it 

 belongs to the testators of Beyerle's Estate, and is at present under 

 the management of Herr Pelizaus, of Cairo ; the area of the farm 

 is 1,200 feddans, and it is situated at Kafr Danouhia, near Zagazig. 

 During several decades, under the management of a Syrian 

 agricultural expert, a farm has been created, where not only all the 

 modern achievements of science in agriculture have been brought 

 into use, but also efforts have been made with a view to creating a 

 pleasing landscape, which is a point that is almost always overlooked 

 in Egypt; the farm buildings have a pleasing appearance. This 

 property figures in the books with a value of E 100,000, which is 



