considerable part of the manure is caked together and it is 

 always advisable to break up these lumps, otherwise they 

 will resist fermentation in the soil for some time. Were 

 manure stored in pits and turned occasionally this would 

 not be seen as the fermentation would be more even. 



As in India, the practice of burning cattle-dung as fuel 

 exists in Egypt, and in every village a considerable 

 proportion of the excrement is so employed. Not only so, 

 but in the neighbourhood of large towns we find a consi- 

 derable trade is carried on in these "gillahs " or sun-dried 

 cakes. It is naturally only the poorest classes who resort 

 to this, the reason for its adoption being a scarcity of fuel. 

 Xo wood is available in Egypt and the price of coal places 

 it entirely outside the reach of the lower classes. During 

 the autumn and winter months maize stalks and cotton- 

 wood are extensively employed, but during the rest of 

 the year sun-dried manure cakes form the bulk of the 

 fuel. It is doubtful whether the great loss which thus 

 naturally results to agriculture is fully appreciated, or even 

 thought of, but when we reflect on the amount of nitrogen 

 lost in this manner annually we can see at once that it 

 must reach a value which, if capable of estimation, would 

 represent a very considerable sum. It is almost unnecessary 

 to state that by the process of burning the nitrogen 

 contained in the manure is lost, though if the resulting 

 ashes be returned to the manure heap the phosphoric acid 

 and potash are preserved. The most valuable constituent, 

 and the one which is the most costly to replace, however, 

 disappears. 



In ordinary air-dried Egyptian cattle manure the 



