168 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan. 



man ; all of them are probably exotic, but they grow with a 

 vigor and yield an abundance such as no other part of the 

 earth can excel. Rice, sugar-cane, sorghum, cotton, castor- 

 beans, indigo, wheat, barley, peas, beans, onions, cucumbers, 

 melons, tomatoes, etc., are the annual crops. Weeds are 

 practically unknown. The seeds that germinate are only 

 those that are put in at the right time with a purpose. 

 Manure is not used, though it would be effectual in increasing 

 the crop. The vast mounds of ruined -cities give a nitrous 

 earth which increases the yield of grain ; but there are no 

 carts or wagons to draw it, and, as the average crop is 

 about forty-live bushels, it is about all that can be expected 

 even from Egypt. 



In a country without forest there must be some provision 

 for fuel, and animal manure is kneaded in water and dried 

 in cakes, and is merchantable fuel for cooking. Lamps fed 

 with castor oil are also used, and sorghum stalks are a 

 useful fuel. 



The time for planting is on the retirement of the water in 

 November. I had supposed, from the Scripture text of 

 casting bread upon the waters, that the seed was sown in 

 that way ; but it is not. The ground is allowed to dry, and 

 then broken with the plough, drawn by oxen or by a single 

 camel. I have seen an ox and camel in uneven yoke plough- 

 ing together. The plough is commonly the wooden model 

 used in the time of Moses, or a few thousand years before 

 Moses. Some advanced plantations have good English 

 ploughs. With the assistance of my dragoman, I told a 

 farmer of the light and effective American plough. He 

 asked how many crops we raised in the year. I confessed 

 to but one. He replied that he had two crops. He then 

 inquired how much wheat would be had from his field of 

 about two acres, in my country. I told him, with some 

 exaggeration, that it might be forty bushels. He gravely 

 stated that he would have at least ninety, and would follow 

 that crop with cotton, of which he would make half a ton. 

 The wheat straw would feed his camel, buffalo cow and two 

 asses during the inundation, with some help from sorghum 

 stalks. He said under the circumstances he thought his 

 crooked tamarisk-root plough was better than mine ; and 



