14 COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 



According to the census of 1907, Cairo had 654,000 inhabitants 

 and Alexandria 332,000 ; there were 43 smaller towns with over 10,000 

 inhabitants and 3,581 villages. Those who know Egypt from formerly 

 and have been absent for some time will be astonished when re-visiting 

 the country again at the change which has come about in the last 

 20 years. Not only have Cairo and Alexandria been magnificently 

 extended through new suburbs, but also the provincial towns have 

 agreeable new parts, with houses built after the European style, 

 electric street lighting, town's water, telephone, watering of the 

 roads, and beautiful public parks, and even the poor villages of the 

 fellaheens are beginning to make a more pleasant impression. 

 Lord Kitchener is trying to show the fellaheen by the building of 

 model houses on the States Domains that a proper dwelling is much 

 more pleasant and healthy to live in than the old clay or mud huts, 

 and that in the long run they are cheaper. He also hopes in this way 

 to fight the enormously large infantile mortality. The improvement 

 of the fellaheen forms one of the chief items in Lord Kitchener's pro- 

 gramme. 



AGRICULTURAL LAND. 



The agricultural land is formed by an old sea bed, covered over 

 first with sand from the sea, then with a layer of mud from the 

 lagoons, and, after the rising of the ground, with Nile silt. Thus 

 the whole of the agricultural land found in Egypt has been covered 

 with fertile Nile silt, almost uniform in character, even in places of 

 different height, and very remarkable is the fact that these fine soils 

 allow the water to percolate very easily. 



The culturable soil in Egypt is Nile silt, consisting largely of 

 clay and silica (sand). It has been used for ages in the 

 making of bricks. Under the influence of the sun and 

 dryness, large rents are caused in this clayish soil, and there- 

 fore the air is able to penetrate into it. In other countries this result 

 can only be arrived at by careful ploughing. The finely-grained Nile 

 silt contains nourishing food for the plants in an easily extracted 

 form. With regard to the chemical constitution of the soil, it is rich 

 in potash or phosphoric acid. It contains a considerable amount of 

 chalk, usually not less than 3 per cent, to 4 per cent, (sometimes as 

 much as 8 per cent, to 9 per cent.), magnesia from 2 per cent, to 3 per 

 cent. ; nitrogen is only found in small quantities. This black, sticky 

 clay soil is sometimes 6 to 12 metres deep, and produces good and 

 many cotton crops, but it is heavy to work and becomes easily sour 

 through stagnant water. 



In other districts the clayish layer is only a few feet deep, and 

 has underneath it a porous earth, sandy clay, and very fine sandy soils 

 are also represented. Vegetation on this light soil is satisfactory, but 

 the yield and the quality of the cotton are smaller. In fact, the fertility 

 of the soil is by no means so great on an average as is generally 

 thought, and even in the Delta one finds in the best agricultural 

 districts here and there sandy desert plains. 



It is worth noting that the Egyptian cotton plantations are partly 

 rich in common salt. Even in well-established cottori plantations, at a 

 depth of half a metre there are found 0'6 per cent, of easily soluble 

 salt, and sometimes as much as 2 per cent. It seems that a small 



