LAND RECLAMATION. 187 



CHAPTER VII. 

 LAND RECLAMATION. 



ALTHOUGH Egypt has been cultivated tor countless cen- 

 turies, and one might even record its agricultural history in 

 millenarian periods, there yet remains a large area to be 

 reclaimed. The great salt lakes bordering the sea coast, 

 Lakes Mareotis 70,000, Edku 60,000, Borollos 180,000 

 and Menzaleh 49,000 feddans with their marginal swamped 

 lands, contain probably 1 ,000,000 feddans, whilst in almost 

 every province in Egypt there is land which from diffi- 

 culties of water supply or drainage, irregularity of surface, 

 supineness or poverty of owners, has never been properly 

 cultivated, or if cultivated in former ages has been allowed 

 to revert. Remains of "basin " banks and of ruined towns 

 indicate more extensive cultivation of the northern delta 

 than actually exists to-day. The population has fluctuated 

 greatly. Under the Pharaohs it was put at 7,000,000 and it 

 increased much under the Ptolemies. The early Arab 

 historians gave it as 12,000,000. In 1844 this had dwindled 

 to 2,400,000 but thereafter it steadily increased until the 

 census of June, 1897, which showed 9,734,405.* The 

 increase is likely to continue. The country is extremely 

 prosperous, plenty of work and plenty of food are at the 

 command of all the rural population, marriages are readily 

 entered into and children can be supported in comfort, 

 whilst devastating epidemics are held in check. The loss 

 of 40,000 by cholera in 1902 was only one half per 

 centum an almost imperceptible check for one year of the 

 normal increase of 2*9 per cent per annum. 



The approximate figures for the census of 1907 are 11.192.000. 



