1877.] 



THE LANCASTER FARMER. 



the husbandman. These Ejjjiitians do about 

 the .saiiu- kind of fainiinj; at the present day 

 that was (Uine by their forefathers four or five 

 tlioiisand yeans aj;o Manure is used for fuel 

 -not put an llie land. 



The eaniel is the most valuable donie.stic 

 animal ; in faet, the cmly one whieh ean suc- 

 cessfully cress these vast deserts. They are 

 healthy, re<iuire no shoeing; their feet are 

 very elastic, spreading right out when they 

 come to the ground. They are faithful, ready 

 and willing io go anywliere at all times ; will 

 carry about seven Imndrcd pounds ; will easily 

 travel from twenty to thirty miles a day, and 

 more it neees.saj^' ; a homely, good animal, 

 always obedient to their Arab masters. A 

 little donkey generally leads the head camel 

 of a caravan. This honesl, intelligent little 

 animal will go straight ahead, and never turn 

 to tlie right or left. They are the principal 

 riding animal in the cities, and quite pleas;uit 

 to jog along on ; besides, they will carry a 

 good load. 



Of the horned cattle, tlu^ bntl'alo, native 

 lireedjis the most valuable. Heavy built, with 

 scarcely any hair on his black hide, black 

 liorns, sloping back, they make very good, 

 hardy oxen. They like to go into the water 

 durimr the middle of the day and lay a long 

 time with only their nose and eyes out of the 

 water. When in the herd they do not asso- 

 ciate with other cattle. This breed is quite 

 healthy, while other cattle die with the mur- 

 rain. " This is not a good cattle-growing sec- 

 tion. The market beef is of poor quality. 

 Tliey have a few large, coarse wool, black 

 sheep, which make fair mutton. Poultry is 

 easily gi-own in this warm, dry climate, but I 

 think the}' have more^poultr}' than corn, for 

 they are generally quite poor. The Egyptians 

 are surrounded with live stock, counting in 

 fleas, mosquitoes, lice, bugs, and other insects 

 of this kind too niunerous to mention. 



The agricultural class of the delta of the 

 Nile live in comiiact villages of mud hovels, 

 which are very tiirht, with .scarcely any light, 

 built on a bit of land raised a few feet above 

 high Xile. While living in a very rich 

 country of land, they are tlie poorest and most 

 ignorant class I have yet seen. The Arab 

 Egyptians are a tall, well built people, who 

 have never been hampered by the rules of 

 civilized society. These iVrab women in their 

 loose flowing dresses, which are tight only 

 around the neck, have nothing to prevent that 

 round, full development of figure .which is so 

 much admired in civilized life and so rarely 

 seen. It is wonderful to see these tall, straight 

 Arab women carry a heavy water jar full of 

 water on their heads, whitdi they carry a long 

 distance, barefooted, with that easy, graceful 

 motion which cannot be imitated by tlie high- 

 heeled beauties of our own country. 



The finances of Egypt are worth the study 

 of our pcoi)le. The present Khedive of Egypt, 

 Ismail Pasha, succeeded to this title in 1863. 

 He was educated in P.aris with lofty ideas, 

 and his will is the supreme law of tile laud. 

 Egypt nominally owes allegiance to Turkey, 

 but is practicallv independent by paying the 

 heavy sum of $UOO,OU(J per year. 



Upon assuming the title of Khedive he em- 

 barked in all the grand enterprises of the day, 

 by constructing raihvays and canals, running 

 steam vesseLs, the Grand Hotel at Cairo, sugar 

 plantations, etc. All this business done on 

 foreign capital, borrowed at a heavy rate of 

 hiterest, some of it at 10 and 12 percent; the 

 English contractors securing fat jobs ; the 

 flood tide of prosperity running high; every- 

 body making money ; never was such times 

 known in Egypt before. Foreigners embark- 

 ed largely in the business of the country when 

 business was so good ; rents advanced rapidly, 

 and livins: was high. But pay-day came at 

 last, and the Khedive could not pay his in- 

 terest, nor could lie get any more money, for 

 it was soon ascertained that he had swamped 

 the country iu a hopeless indebtedness. Then 

 came the cra.sh.with many failures, and Egypt 

 is now suffering sorely from misnianageraent. 

 It will never recover its former prosperity. 

 The population of this country is only 7,000,- 



000, and the richness of the country has been 

 overrated. There is only a strip of land along 

 the Nile, not very wide — excepting the delta 

 of the Nile, which is from M to l.'id miles wide 

 — that is rich. All the rest of the country is 

 a howling desert. 



I have been on the top of .several of the 

 highest cathedrals of Eurojic, ami in some low 

 places too, yet have never had such a splendid 

 view as wlien standing on the top of the great 

 jiyramid of Cheops, the highest in the world, 

 vvith fully ten miles of water in front ; many 

 large villages surrounded with deep water ; 

 the date palm seen all around, with some speci- 

 mens nearly KM) feet high. The grand old 

 Nile, with its i.slands, coidd be seen a long 

 distance iu the clear atmosphere ; some 

 twenty-five pyramids in full view, and here I 

 saw the great howling desert wilderness for 

 the first time, which was a great curiosity to 

 me ; the blowing sand was drifting all around 

 below us— a solitary, dismal looking place in- 

 deed. 



These pyramids are old settlers, according 

 to the estimate of M. Mariette, who has de- 

 voted a lifetime to the- study of Egyptian 

 antiquities, in the emplo}' of the Khedive. 

 He has collected and arranged the museiun at 

 Cairo, the most valuable collection of Egyp- 

 tian antiquities in the world. The Engli.sh 

 residents and all other clas.ses consider him 

 the best authority. According to his calcula- 

 tion the great Cheops pyramid was built 4'i.3.5 

 years B. C. The first known king of Egypt 

 lived .5004 years B. C. In addition to other 

 evidence, recent discoveries appear to confirm 

 these figures. This pyramid covers twelve 

 acres of land, and is 460 feet high; construct- 

 ed solid, of heavy block stone, some of which 

 are thirty feet long, three feet thick, and six 

 feet wide, of a beautiful white limestone. 

 The inside chamber is constructed of heavy 

 blocks, each weighing several tons, of red 

 granite, and fitted together as closely as i)os- 

 sible. They were brought from the Upper 

 Nile, over .500 miles. There are about 100 

 ])yramids scattered along the banks of the 

 Nile, inside of fifty miles. Two or three 

 others are nearly as large as this one, but 

 many are small. One hundred thousand men 

 Were occupied ten years in getting ready, and 

 ;560,000 men spent twenty years in building 

 the great Cheops pyramid. The mind can 

 scarcely comprehend the magnitude of this 

 great heathen temple. 



According to the hieroglyphics, in the days 

 of the pyramids, Egypt conquered all the sur- 

 rounding nations, and placed her frontier 

 wherever she pleased. Slie has since been 

 conquered seven or eight times, and at the 

 present day is hardly capable of self-govern- 

 ment. These people are not wanting in intel- 

 lect. The whole secret of the matter is, the 

 masses of the people are not educated. This 

 is a lesson that our American jieople should 

 leant over and over again — to educate the 

 working classes. 



After living among these dark-skitmed 

 Turks and Arabst over four mouths, I long to 

 once more get among the white Christian na- 

 tions, and my course now will be in that di- 

 rection. 



A happy New Years to the readers of The 

 F All M Eli. They may all thank God that 

 they live in our own blessed country. — D. C. 

 Michmond- 



TWENTY MILLIONS IN BEEF. 



The Ups and Downs of Cattle Raising on the 

 Plains. 



A special correspondent of the New York 

 World writes from Denver, Col.: 



A good share of the best beef in the western 

 markets comes from the plains of Colorado 

 and Wyoming. The supply is increasing 

 overy year, ;is the shipments from the cattle 

 yards at Cheyenne, Denver. Deer Trail, Las 

 Animas, and "other points show. The best 

 ranges are now largely occupied, and the val- 

 leys of the Platte, Republican and Upper Ar- 

 kansas fairly swarm with cattle. Some of the 

 best known Texas drovers have removed their 



herds from the Bed Biver country to the 

 Platte. John Hittson's great ranch on the 

 Bijou, a tributary of the Platte, where his 

 herd of 40,000 are grazing, and the ranches of 

 .John W. Ilili; .1. P. Farmer and other "cattle 

 kings," now located in Colorado, are ex- 

 amples. The .State auditor's books show that 

 there are a half million head of cattle witiiin 

 our borders, and over 200,000 in Wyoming. 

 As large numbers escape assessment l")y being 

 transferred over the line, back and forth, at 

 the proper season, it woidd be a fair estimate 

 to say that tliere are around million of cattle 

 grazing in the two territories. They are 

 worth from SlO,000,000 to $12,000,000, and 

 when marketed at Kansas City or Omaha, 

 twice that sum. Last year's shipments from 

 ( 'olorado were estimated at 00,000 head, worth 

 in market $2,700,000 ; and the shipments 

 from the Laramie plains in AVyoming over 

 25,000— showing in round numbers a jjroduct 

 of about $.'i, 500,000 in beef raised for market 

 on the western borders of the " Great Ameri- 

 can Desert." 



The shipping season is generally from Au- 

 gust to November. Sometimes the drovers 

 hold back, as they did this sea.sou, for better 

 prices, resulting in a great rush for the mar- 

 ket the latter half of October and the first 

 two weeks in November, taxing the railroads 

 beyond their cai)aeity. There are now await- 

 ing shipment, between Denver and Kit Car- 

 son, on the Kansas Pacific, from Pueblo to 

 Las Animas, on the Atchison, Topeka and 

 Santa Fe, and from Cheyenne to .Julesburg, 

 on tiie LTnion Pacific, thirty or forty thousand 

 head of cattle, wliicli will be got into market 

 as rapidlv as cars can be provided. During 

 October there were 460 car loads taken east- 

 ward from points on the Uiuon Pacific rail- 

 road, most of them being loaded at Cheyenne 

 aud .Julesburg, and coming from the herds on 

 the Laramie plains and Platte valley. For 

 the four months ending with October, 1,.561 

 car loads had been shipi)ed from these points. 

 The shipments by the Kansas Pacific from 

 Denver, Box Elder, Biver Bend, Deer Trail, 

 Kit Carson and Las Animas during the past 

 two months have been very large. One hun- 

 dred and fifty-three ear loads were shipped 

 from Las Animas alone during October. The 

 total .shipments for the sea.son from the above 

 stations have probably been 20,000 head. The 

 Atchison, Toi)eka and Santa Fe line has stock 

 yards at Pueblo, West Las Animas, Granada 

 and one or two other points within Colorado. 

 Their slijpments have been considerable, but I 

 could not obtain the figures. Last season they 

 took 8,043 head from Las Animas and 8,074 

 from Granada. Large numbers bound for 

 the eastern markets were driven out of the 

 State, feeding leisurely along, and finally 

 loaded on the cars at Dodge City, Great 

 Bend or AVichita, from which stations there 

 were forwarded in four months .17,875 head. 

 It seems probable that there will have been 

 shipped out of Colorado and Wyoming during 

 this season over one hundred and twenty-five 

 thousand fat beeves for the markets of the 

 Missouri and Jilississippi valleys. Had better 

 prices prevailed, especially the past month, 

 the exports would have been much greater. 

 Shipping dressed beef to market is carried on 

 at two or three points, and is a business of 

 some magnitude. The slaughter houses at 

 West Las Animas put up and sent into east- 

 ern markets over twenty thousand head in 

 this way last winter. The prospects are that 

 very large shipments will be made during the 

 next tluree months. It will depend on the 

 markets. Beef is now low, and all who are 

 not obliged to tinn their beeves into money, 

 will hold on for better times. Good steers 

 bring 2.} cents per imund on the hoof, from 

 one-half to one per cent, less than last sea- 

 son. Ordinary Texans rule so low that 

 neither buyer nor drover cares to market 

 them. The drovers on the i)lains are giving 

 a good deal of attention to "breeding up." 

 Large numbers of thoroughbred bulls have 

 been introduced. The old Texas stock is fast 

 disappearing, and the young improved half- 

 breeds, which make choicest beef and are far 



