Book I. 



AGRICULTURE IN AFRICA. 



m 



10G3. The agricultural implements of Egypt are simple ; but some of them, particularly 

 the contrivances for raising water, very ingenious. The plough is of the rudest kind, 

 as are the cart and spade. 



1064. The operations of threshing and sowing have been already described (1052-3.). 

 That of irrigation is performed as in other countries. At present there are reckoned eighty 

 canals in use for this purpose, some of them twenty, thirty, and forty leagues in length. 

 The lands near the -river, as the Delta, are watered directly from it ; the water is raised 

 by wheels in the dry season ; and when the inundation takes place, it is retained on the 

 fields for a certain time by ^ a ^ 1*^3 

 small embankments made 

 round them. 



1065. iVtffem, the Ethiopia 

 of the ancients, is a miserable 

 country or desert, thinly in- 

 habited by a wretched people, 

 who live chiefly on millet, 

 and dwell in groups of mud 

 huts, {fg. 173.) 



SuBSECT. 3. Present State of Agriculture in the Mahometan States of the North of Africa. 



1066. These are Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, and Morocco; territories chiefly on the 

 southern shore of the Mediterranean, rich, and celebrated in the ages of antiquity, but 

 at present depressed by the barbarism and fanaticism of their rulers, who are in general 

 tributary to the Porte. 



1067. Tripoli is generally distinguished into maritime and inland. In neither is there 

 much agriculture, for the inhabitants of countries on the coast live chiefly by commerce 

 and piracy ; and those of the inland parts on plunder and robbery. There are a few 

 fields of grain, chiefly rice, round the capital, date palms, olives, and what is called the 

 lotus-tree {Zizyphus lotus), whose fruit is reckoned superior to the date, and makes 

 excellent wine. 



1068. The kingdom of Tunis was formerly the chief seat of Carthaginian power. The 

 soil is in general impregnated with marine salt and nitre, aild springs of fresh water are 

 more rare than of salt. But the Tunisians are much more agriculturists than their 

 neighbors either of Tripoli or Algiers. The southern parts of the country are sandy, 

 barren, and parched by a burning sun : the northern parts enjoy a better soil and tem- 

 perature, and are more under cultivation : near the sea, the country is rich in olive- 

 trees. The western part abounds in mountains and hills, and is watered by numerous 

 rivulets ; it is extremely fertile, and produces the finest and most abundant crops. The 

 first rains commonly fall in September, and then the farmers break up the ground, sow their 

 grain, and plant beans, lentils, and garvancos. By May following, harvest commences; 

 and we may judge of its productiveness by what the Carthaginians experienced of old 

 (38. ) The ox and the buffalo are the principal beasts of labor, and next the ass, mule, 

 and horse. Both the first and the last have here degenerated in size. They have a 

 curiously-shaped cow {fig. 174.), which some consider a distinct species from the bos 

 taurus, foem. or common com\ 



1069. The territory of Algiers, in an agricultural 

 point of view, is chiefly distinguished by the fertile 

 plain of Mettijiah, a vast country, which stretches fifty 

 miles in length, and twenty in breadth, to the foot of 

 one of the branches of Mount Atlas. This plain is 

 watered by several streams ; the soil is light and fertile, 

 and it is better cultivated than any other district of the 

 kingdom. The country-seats and masharcas, as they 

 call the farms of the principal inhabitants of Algiers, 

 are found in these plains ; and it is chiefly from them 

 that the metropolis is supplied with provisions. Flax, 

 alhenna, roots, potherbs, rice, fruit, and grain of all 



kinds are produced here to such perfection, that the Metijiah may be justly reckoned 

 the garden of the whole kingdom. 



1070. In the inland provinces are immense tracts of country wholly uninhabited and 

 uncultivated. There are also extensive tracts of brushwood, and some timber-forests. 

 The fertility of the soil decreases in approaching Sahara or the Desert, although in its 

 borders, and even in the desert itself there are some districts which are capable of culti- 

 vation, and which produce corn, figs, and dates. These regions are inhabited by no- 

 madical tribes, who, valuing themselves on their independence, endure with fortitude 

 and resignation the inconvetiiences attending their condition, and scarce regret the want 

 of those advantages and comforts that pertain to a civilised state of society. 



