MANURES. <?!! 



it is by no means uncommon to Bee fields of cotton and 

 sugar-cane flooded to such an extent that the surplus 

 water cannot find an escape but remains stagnant for 

 some time. 



In some cases therefore, it may be our object to di- 

 minish retentive power, in others to increase it. As or- 

 ganic matter is most potent in this respect, it follows 

 that the growth of lupins as green manure, practised on 

 many sandy soils in Egypt, is an excellent plan, while the 

 growth of berseem, in addition to improving the soil 

 from the point of view of its nitrogen, also exercises a 

 very beneficial influence on many soils in this indirect 

 manner. 



Green manuring is practised very extensively in Egypt. 

 Crops are not grown except in the case of lupins with 

 this as the primary object, but the ploughing in of ber- 

 seem before cotton, which is so common, is a system of 

 green manuring which is attended with most excellent 

 results. At the time it is ploughed in there is a consider- 

 able amount of stem and young leaves on the plant, 

 though the amount of organic matter thus added to the 

 soil is not so great as when mustard, buckwheat, lupins, 

 and other crops are grown primarily for this purpose in 

 Europe. The frequency with which it is practised in 

 Egypt, however, compensates for this, and it is impossible 

 to over-estimate the importance of the effect which it has 

 had 011 Egyptian soils. In the first place the mechanical 

 condition of the soils has been improved, and when 

 vegetable matter is thus incorporated in our heavy clay 

 soils it opens them up, making them more light and 



