64-8 Heport on the State of Agriculture 



worked by three oxen and two men. They work, on an average, 

 180 days in tlie year. There is, besides, another kind of 

 machine for raising water, called a " shadoof," of which there 

 are a great many worked by men without oxen. Dr. Bowring 

 calculates that these water-wheels may be in a great measure 

 dispensed with by throwing a dam across the Nile at a short 

 distance from the fork of the Delta ; — a magnificent idea, the 

 sublimity of which can only be fully felt by those who have seen 

 a wide river passing through a perfectly flat country, such as 

 Holland. In a subsequent part of the Report, it is stated that 

 the use of steam-engines for throwing up water may probably 

 render such a dam unnecessary. 



Canals and Wells have been at all times in use for asjricul- 

 tural purposes in the region above the valley of the Nile, and 

 many of these have been constructed, excavated, or repaired, by 

 the government of Mahomet Ali. 



The government, it seems, is obliged to force the inhabit-' 

 ants to cultivate the ground according to approved rules. 



" The excuse alleged for forcing a particular cultivation in Egypt is, that 

 the lazy habits of the fellahs would induce them to abandon cultivation 

 altogether, or, at all events, only to produce the articles necessary for their 

 own consumption, and such as required the smallest application of labour, 

 were not the despotic stimulant applied. On one occasion, when I suggested 

 to Mahomet Ali that a greater latitude left to the cultivator would lead to an 

 increased production, he replied, ' No ! my peasantry are suffering from the 

 disease of ignorance to their true interest, and I must act the part of the 

 doctor. I must be severe when anything goes wrong.' 



" The indolence of the fellahs may be, to a certain extent, a justification of 

 that direction which the government gives to cultivation, by requiring the 

 production of certain articles in particular localities, not allowing to the 

 peasant or proprietor to decide as to what produce would be most profitable 

 to him. 



" The authorities aver that, where a greater liberty of action has been-given 

 to the cultivator, his produce has been less, and that the ordinary motive of 

 the love of gain is not so strong as the unwillingness to labour. As far, how- 

 ever, as I was enabled to judge, the desire to accumulate and to retain wealth 

 is as active and as influential among the fellah race as in any other class of 

 human beings; and, were the rights of property better defined and respected, 

 and a system of regularity introduced into the fiscal machinery of Egypt, the 

 peasantry might be very safely trusted to take care of their own interests." 



This state of things in Egypt is not very different from what was 

 the case in the very best cultivated districts in Scotland about 

 the beginning of the last century ; in proof of which see Cleg- 

 horn's History of Agricidture in Black's edition of the Encrj- 

 clopcedia Britannica, now in course of publication. 



Passing over several pages, wiiich it would be interesting to 

 quote if this Magazine were as much devoted to agriculture as 

 it is to gardening ; and leaving the culture of dourah grass 

 (ii/olcus Sorghian L.), rice, tobacco which is grown to a con- 

 siderable extent in Middle Egypt, cotton the culture of which 



