CULTIVATION. 79 



soluble, quick-acting manures may be applied to heavy 

 soils without fear of loss. The wetness, coldness, and lack 

 of air of clay soils make them unhealthy and late in 

 cropping. Such soils are highly unsuitable for fruit and 

 vegetable culture. On clay soils poor in nitrogen, lupins, 

 lucerne, berseem, helba or fenugreek, guilban or vetchling, 

 and beans may be grown as there is little outlay with those 

 crops and they open up and enrich the soil. Wheat, 

 cotton, maize and sugar cane can be successfully grown 

 on the better clay soils. The Facus soil of last chapter 

 was characterised by its cultivator as being incapable of 

 producing a crop (p. 39). 



The great bulk of Egyptian soils may be classed as 

 heavy or light loams. The sandy -loams are easily cultivated, 

 the clayey -loams are usually richer and more suited to 

 cotton cultivation. The properties of loam soil approach 

 those of clay on the one side and sand on the other. For 

 nearly all crops a loam soil is physically the best; 

 chemically it may be deficient in plant food, or it may be 

 salt or wet. A loam soil, however, has a greater chance 

 of being rich in available plant food than either clay or 

 sandy soil, as its good physical condition is favourable 

 to the growth of nitrogen -collecting bacteria, to the 

 accumulation of dead vegetable matter (as more plants 

 grow on it) and to the weathering of the materials in the 

 soil. All crops will grow well on loam with the single 

 exception of earthnuts which requires a very free soil. 

 Clay soils are called " heavy " because they are " stiff " to 

 work; "cold" or "wet" because they are badly drained 

 and often wet; "inactive" because they respond slowly 



