1891.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 177 



Dr. Loring. What use is made of sorghum in Egypt? 



Mr. Russell. It is used as fuel, and to make doors and 

 roofs for their huts. The seed is fed to cattle and fowls, 

 and also ground and made into a coarse bread. 



Question. Did you ever taste the bread? 



Mr. Russell. Yes, sir. 



Question. Was it good for anything? 



Mr. Russell. It was sweet and wholesome bread. I 

 never liked rye or Indian bread very well ; and I think that 

 I could have eaten as much of this, if it had been made 

 clean and baked in a good oven, as I could of rye bread 

 without butter. 



Dr. Loring. Any sorghum sugar made there ? 



Mr. Russell. There is no sugar made from sorghum in 

 Egypt, from the fact that the sugar-cane grows abundantly 

 upon planting. It is not a spontaneous growth, because the 

 two or three months of inundation and the long drouths kill it. 



Question. Did you drink any of the milk? 



Mr. Russell. Yes, sir ; I drank the milk freely. I used 

 to drink milk in the morning in my coffee, and I liked it. 

 It had quite a strong taste. We got an abundance of cream, 

 and apparently honest, clean-looking milk. I never went 

 to see where it came from. 



Question. How wide is the portion that is inundated ? 



Mr. Russell. The valley of the Nile does not average, 

 taking in the delta, — and the delta is something more than 

 a hundred miles wide in places, — the valley of the Nile, 

 from the Mediterranean to the first cataract, does not aver- 

 age ten miles in width. Frequently it is not more than a 

 rod in width. I have ridden over a plain of beautiful 

 land, covered with crops, six or seven miles, until I came to 

 the desert. The desert is always encroaching. The sands 

 of the desert are blown towards the cultivated land, and 

 gradually cover it if it is not kept out of the way, and 

 irrigation properly provided for. 



" The Farmer is the Man that feeds us all " was then sung 

 by Mr. George C. Rice, Mrs. G. A. Wason, and Mr. and 

 Mrs. Fred Midgley. The audience manifested their pleas- 

 ure by an encore, which was responded to by a duet from 

 Mr. Rice and Mrs. Wason. 



