MANURES. J5 



supply the plant with lime as food, yet its action is chiefly 

 indirect. Another example of an indirect action of a 

 manure may be cited in the case of gypsum, which is 

 often employed in the reclamation of lands containing 

 sodium carbonate. 



Considering them, however, in order, we may take Nile 

 mud and farm-yard manure as types of manures in this 

 country which exercise both a direct and an indirect 

 action. Green manuring has already been referred to. 



NILE Muu. 



In a broad sense, this may be looked upon as the 

 manurial substance which has contributed more towards 

 the fertility of Egyptian soils than any other. It in 

 fact constitutes the soils of Egypt, which, unless 

 impregnated with injurious salts, are almost invariably 

 fertile. As is well known the red muddy Avater of the 

 Nile deposits, during its sojourn in the basins, a valuable 

 layer of rich mud. The soil is thus enriched annually, 

 and, as already mentioned, as long as this system was 

 practised in Lower Egypt there was not that need for 

 manure which has arisen to-day. Warping, as sometimes 

 practised to-day during the flood season for the reclama- 

 tion of certain lands in the Delta., leaves a valuable deposit 

 of mud and this in addition to removing a large quantity 

 of salt for which purpose it is often primarily employed. 

 The effect which this mud produces on the physical con- 

 ditioas of such Ian Is is alsj one which must not be lost 

 sight of, though it is with its value from a strictly man- 

 urial point of view that we are immediately concerned. 



