LAXJJ RECLAMATION. 195 



of the Aboukir land was 14,000 feddans. On this area 

 the rain which fell from 25th to 29th December 1902 

 was 3*04 inches or 7*60 centimetres giving 324 cubic 

 metres per feddan or 4,536,000 cubic metres for the total 

 area, On 30th December the syphon was discharging 

 with a head of *97 metre. 437,833 cubic metres or 31*28 

 cubic metres per feddan. On 3rd January 1903 this had 

 diminished to 304,261 cubic metres or 22*44 cubic metres 

 per feddan, the head on the syphon being "50 metres. 

 From 4th to 6th January the rainfall was 1*54 inches 

 (3*85 centimetres) and drainage on 5th was 332,486 cubic 

 metres or 23*75 cubic metres per feddan. These figures 

 are for rainfall only, as during the whole period in question 

 1 1 ic head sluice was completely closed and no irrigation 

 water was used. There is not a year in which there is 

 not a fall of 2 inches in two or three days, and if it occurs 

 in October, when berseem is only two or three inches 

 high, much damage is done. To give reasonable protec- 

 tion against inundation, the drainage allowance should be 

 50 cubic metres per feddan. This only applies to the 

 coast, much of the rain does not go inland more than 

 fifteen miles from the sea, and in any case higher and less 

 salt lands do not suffer so much. 



Aboukir lands have now a syphon capacity equal to at 

 least four pipes of 5 feet diameter for 36,000 feddans, 

 and this not for ordinary agricultural drainage but on 

 account of the rainfall. Syphons are often made much 

 too small. In low-lying land such a loss of head as one 

 metre, and even 0*50 metre, is fatal to good drainage. 

 The sectional area of syphons should be calculated so that 

 tlii'.v mnv do their nofmal work with a hwid of not nioiv 



