i;.i> /:<; mi. LV AG 



A very high flood and a slow fall of the 'Nile retards 

 the draining of the basins, and the sowing of crops may 

 be unduly late. 



The whole working of the basin system, filling and 

 emptying them, and passing water from higher to lower 

 ones entails most careful calculation and supervision. This 

 work is entirely in the hands of the Irrigation Department 

 and only the results concern the agriculturist. 



Cinder the basin system, only winter crops can be grown, 

 such as wheat, barley, beans, vetches. There is no agri- 

 cultural work to be done between harvest and flood. 

 Repairs of basin banks, and clearances of canals occupy 

 the population, of whom, however, many seek work in 

 Lower Egypt. Others are employed in laboriously raising 

 water by Shadoofs to irrigate small patches of summer 

 cultivation on the banks of the Nile or adjoining canals. 



Till now, the basin system has been the best method 

 of utilising theXile flood in Upper Egypt, but on economic 

 grounds it Avill disappear, or at least under gogreat modi- 

 fication. 



The whole of Upper Egypt is not solely on the basin 

 system and dependent on winter crops only. There are 

 now SS6,900 feddans cultivated during summer in sugar 

 cane, cotton and durah, and when the Nile reservoir at 

 Assouan has been heightened the area receiving perennial 

 irrigation will be greatly increased and the basin system 

 will practically disappear. Up to the end of 1907, the 

 total area of basin land converted to perennial irrigation 

 is 322,961 feddans; this cost L.E. 3,050,373. Instead of 

 completely abolishing the basin system it would be more 



