COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 43 



certainly too low, and earns 8 per cent, per annum. Excellent 

 cotton is being grown on the Estate, and the first Assili cotton was 

 raised there. 



Selling of Government Land. Among the lands belonging to 

 the State there are still enormous tracts of land which are at present 

 unfit for cultivation, but after the installation of irrigation and 

 drainage systems it will be possible to wash out the salt and make 

 cultivation profitable. For this purpose large capital is required, 

 which can only be brought up by land companies and wealthy private 

 individuals, who, as already stated, sell the land in small plots to 

 the natives after having prepared it ready for cultivation. 



The Government has taken up so far a somewhat reserved 

 attitude in the sale of fallow land, and their intention of maintain- 

 ing the small holder and of increasing their number is everywhere 

 traceable. It is for this reason that the Government grants all 

 reasonable facilities to attract European capital for the opening up 

 of agriculture, but they oppose everything that might lead to a 

 displacement of the native small holders by Europeans. Land 

 speculation is not supported. 



As already mentioned, there are in the northern part of the 

 Delta still large uncultivated and sparsely populated tracts of land, 

 which is salty, sandy, or swampy, and up to now is only used as 

 pasture ; parts of these tracts are covered by shallow salt lakes, but 

 all this land can be made cultivable with proper irrigation and 

 drainage works ; it is true the land might produce during the first 

 5 or 6 years only rice, clover, cereals, beans, and such like, before 

 it could be planted with cotton. The Government began a close 

 study of this problem in 1910, and started on 1| million feddans, or 

 excluding the shallow shore lakes between the Delta and the sea, 

 950,000 'feddans so far uncultivated, of which 600,000 feddans is 

 Government land, and 350,000 feddans belong to the States Domains 

 and private individuals. As far back as 1905 the Government 

 decided not to sell this much coveted land unless a new and ample 

 supply of water could be obtained. When this condition shall really 

 have been reached the stipulation will be placed on the sale of the land 

 that the buyer must really improve this fallow land, within a given 

 time, and take care then when re-selling the land the small 

 holders will have the full advantage of the irrigation and drainage. 

 Pure land speculation will certainly not be allowed. 



Land Prices. The value of land in Egypt has had many large 

 fluctuations in the course of time. Up to the time of the termina- 

 tion of the Arabi rebellion in 1882 the political situation of the 

 country was too uncertain to give absolute protection to the landed 

 proprietor, and this is the fundamental condition for a regular increase 

 in land values. During the eighties the value rose first gradually, 

 then more rapidly in the nineties, and then reached its highest point 

 in leaps and bounds in the boom period between 1903 and 1906. In 1 

 1907 the official price for basin land was ^E60 and ^E120 to 

 for perennially irrigated land, and the corresponding rent was 

 to ;E10 per feddan. 



Meanwhile, the finance crisis of 1907 came, the results of which 

 are even now felt, although it hardly brought a decrease in the price 



