LAND RECLAMATION. 201 



Rates of earthwork vary. On Aboukir they are 25 per 

 cent under those stated but the salt soil there is always 

 moist and easily worked with shovels. Elsewhere on dry 

 harder soil, work has to be done with fass and basket and 

 costs more. Hod canals should have small brick masonry 

 heads, but fireclay or cement pipes 30 centimetres in 

 diameter are sufficient for hoshay canals. 



Wash iny. The canalisation being completed the 

 next step is to wash the land. This begins in August 

 or September when the Nile flood is available. The gattas 

 are filled with water to a depth of ten centimetres, and 

 kept continuously supplied, and the water is allowed to 

 filter through the soil dissolving out the salts. The 

 filtration water which finds its way into the drain is 

 exceedingly salt during the earlier stages of washing. As 

 much as 15 per cent, of salt is sometimes found in the 

 drain water, and even when the sweetening process has 

 considerably advanced 2 to 3 per cent, is generally found. 



If there is a white crust of salt over the surface of the 

 ground it is very quickly taken up in solution and the 

 water may then be run off into the drain and a fresh 

 supply introduced. A four-inch crust of solid salt has 

 been removed in a week by one washing. It is only at 

 the very first that surface washing is permissible. Natives 

 often keep a constant stream of water running into a plot 

 at one end and off at the other. The effluent water is 

 not perceptibly salt to the taste which means that there 

 is less than one half per cent of salt in solution. Enor- 

 mous quantities of water are wasted by this method, and 



