BHfi I.R'RI,G'.ATLON AGE. 



certain amount had to be done each year before high 

 water appeared in the Nile. The dam had to be put in 

 shape to withstand this high water during June and 

 July each year, and the work could not again be under- 

 taken until toward the middle of November. The dam 

 was completed July 31 of this year. It will store 

 360,000 acre-feet of water, which is sufficient to irrigate 



IRRIGATING FIELD WITH WATER RAISED BY PERSIAN 

 WHEEL NEAR CAIRO. 



about 400,000 acres of land. This water will be used 

 largely to extend the system of perennial irrigation and 

 to reclaim a small area of new land. It will require 

 storage works having a capacity six times that of the 

 Assuan reservoir to furnish water for perennial irriga- 

 tion to all of the arable lands of the valley. Reser- 

 voir construction has therefore just begun. Even when 

 all the reservoirs are completed, no great change will 

 have taken place in the climate of the valley. It will 

 still be necessary for the irrigator to use a pump or other 



CANALS IN FAYUM PYOVINCE. 

 75 Miles South West of Cairo. 



-water raising device. Water for domestic purposes will 

 still be carried by women, as it has been for thousands 

 of years. 



Returning to Cairo we will proceed along the road 

 leading to the pyramids until the village of Talbia is 

 reached. The, town proper is located just to the south 

 of the pyramid road. Districts called "hods" containing 



5 to 50 acres or more -are supposed to divide the land 

 into areas having the same taxable value. The farms 

 which lie within these hods are numbered, so that the 

 official records refer to the number of the farm and the 

 number of the hod, in addition to showing the name 

 of the village to which they belong. The farms are long 

 and narrow. This is due to the fact that only the hod 

 lines are preserved by monuments. When a piece of 

 land is sold, measurements are made along the hod lines 

 instead of laying out a new piece of land having better 

 dimensions. I have the measurements of a number of 

 the farms near Talbia. One farm in particular was 

 found to be 6 feet wide and 1,500 feet long and con- 

 tained less than ^ acre. The farming scenes around 

 the village of Talbia are as interesting as those elsewhere 

 in Egypt. The farmer plows his land with a wooden 

 plow where a hoe is not used instead. It seldom happens 

 that one farmer possesses a team of his own and animals 

 are exchanged. This brings about strange combinations. 

 An ox and a camel drawing a plow is frequently seen. 

 The water buffalo is among the most useful and profit- 

 able of the animals grown by the Egyptians. Where it 

 is difficult to plow the land, natives may be seen in the 

 fields breaking the ground with a hoe. Indian corn is 



LOADING BOATS WITH WATER JARS AT ASS1UT. 

 210 Miles South of Cairo. 



raised extensively and it forms an important part of the 

 food of the farmers. It is piled along the high em- 

 bankments before the season of flood, where the grain 

 is beaten from the cobs by clubs in the hands of the 

 farmers. Egyptian corn is treated a good deal the 

 same way. Wheat is threshed by the old-fashioned 

 sledge drawn by oxen. All kinds of grain are winnowed 

 and all straw is preserved for feeding to the animals. 

 Where a small stream of water can be obtained from a 

 well or from a pump situated on the banks of the Nile, 

 farmers may be seen irrigating. Often the earth is 

 thrown out by hand after being loosened by means of 

 the hoe. Canals are still dug as they were thousands of 

 years ago, the material being put in baskets with the 

 hoe and carried by the native workmen to the bank. 



Leaving the village of Talbia, the pyramids may 

 be seen in the distance. The trolley line which runs 

 from Cairo to them is furnished with cars which were 

 made in St. Louis. A drainage channel runs along 

 side the road, which carries water from the irrigation 

 basins back to the Nile. The basins near the pyramids 

 are quite low and are the last to reappear after the 

 flood. 



