1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 163 



land came out, and I have got them all on my side, that we 

 cannot afford to buy nitrogen to raise corn. I have never 

 had a chance to claim the credit of that until now. I have 

 practiced applying my manure in the fall. I have eighty 

 loads in the cellar now, which will be drawn out and put 

 upon the ground as soon as it can be. I have done it for 

 years, but I have not a neighbor or a townsman who has 

 dared to do it. 



Mr. Ware. We have passed a vote of thanks to every 

 speaker, and certainly if any of them are worthy of it, 

 Professor Roberts is. I move a vote of thanks to him for 

 his able and instructive lecture. 



The motion was seconded, and carried unanimously. 



Adjourned to 7.30. 



Evening Session. 



The meeting was opened at the hour appointed, by the 

 singing of a duet by Mr. George C. Rice of Worcester and 

 Mrs. G. A. Wason of New Hampshire, which was loudly 

 applauded. 



The chairman then introduced as the lecturer of the 

 evening Hon. John E. Russell of Leicester, late secretary 

 of the Board. 



THE AGRICULTURE OF THE NILE VALLEY. 



BY JOHN E. RUSSELL OF LEICESTER. 



The Nile is, in ancient speech, the parent of Egypt. The 

 inhabited country is the actual bed of the river, bounded 

 by the rising lands and mountain chains of the Lybian and 

 Arabian deserts upon each side. 



The remarkable physical fact is that rain practically does 

 not fall in this region, and all vegetation is confined to the 

 land that in the annual rise of the river is overflowed by it, 

 or that is watered by irrigation. Much of the ground is 

 several months under water, nearly all of it is not only 

 watered, but also fertilized by the black silt or slime, as it 

 is called, and which it resembles, that is brought down by 

 the flood ; this conies in great part from the last tributary 



