COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 91 



included in this figure, but the sacking has to be provided by the 

 purchaser. All expenses of reception and delivery of the cotton are 

 placed to the debit of the ginning factory, and the seed is returned 

 to the owner of the cotton. 



Children of 13 to 14 years working in the ginning factories 

 receive 2^ P.T. to 3 P,T. wages per day of 15 to 16 working hours, 

 including rest intervals; male w r orkers receive a daily wage of 4 P.T. 

 to 5 P.T. During the pressure of the cotton season the factories 

 work day and night in two shifts of 12 hours. The ginning factories 

 also work Sundays ; only keep the great festival days as holidays ; 

 commence to work in February and suspend work from April to 

 August. 



Compresses. The reason why cotton does not receive its final 

 packing at once at the first pressing is that the exporters of Alexan- 

 dria wish to have the opportunity of convincing themselves at Alexan- 

 dria that the whole lot is true to the sample ; at times also various 

 qualities are mixed together to produce one average at Alexandria, and 

 for these reasons the last pressing, which on account of the sea- 

 freight has" to be as dense as possible, is given, in the majority of 

 instances, at Alexandria by steam presses ; these are superior to those 

 used in America. The first compress was introduced by the firm of 

 Carver Brothers & Co. about the year 1868. 



To-day the whole of the pressing business is in the hands of 

 three limited companies, viz. '. - 



Societe generate de pressage et de depots, established 1889, 

 which purchased the then existing presses of the firms Carver, 

 Choremi, Peel, and the Anglo-Egyptian Bank; it has a capital of 

 ;216,000 in ordinary shares and ^120,000 debentures, and 

 possesses eight presses. A second company was established in 

 1892, the Societe anonyme des presses libres egyptiennes, which 

 works with a share capital of ^70,000, plus A 1,000 debentures, and 

 with its three presses entered to a certain degree into competition 

 with the first-mentioned firm. A third firm, the Deutsche Baumwoll- 

 presse A. G., was established in 1906, with the support of the Deut- 

 sche Orientbank, with a capital of ^E50,000 in ordinary shares, and 

 ;E50,000 in debentures. 



These presses are all situated in the quarter of the town known 

 as Minet-el-Bassal, which is the centre of the cotton trade of Alexan- 

 dria. 



The " Deutsche Baumwollpresse," which pays a dividend of 

 7 per cent., after providing amply for depreciation, is used by the 

 firms R. & O. Lindemann, Fritz Andres & Co., and H. Bindernagel, 

 and each of these firms has in the plain but practically arranged 

 buildings, which are provided with automatic sprinklers, its own 

 mixing-room, its own staff under the supervision of its own ware- 

 house manager, as well as its own well-lighted room on the roof for 

 final examination and classification of the cotton recently purchased 

 in Alexandria and of the cotton which has been delivered from the 

 interior. 



The Deutsche Orientbank also uses the Deutsche Baumwoll- 

 presse for the cotton held as security. 



All the pressing companies possess besides large warehouses, or 

 " Shoonas," which have lately also been sprinklered, and are there- 



