650 Report on the State of Agriculture 



tolerably good wine has been made. The white wine resembles Marsala, 

 though it is not equal to it in quality ; the red is somewhat similar to th e 

 common wine of Spain. 



" Trees. — 1. The indigenous trees of Egypt are few. The Acacia (lebbek) 

 has a fine foliage in the time of the inundation. The heart of the trunk, 

 which is black, is employed in wheel-making and sakias : the white part of the 

 trunk easily decays. 



" 2. The sycomore (gimmis) [Picus iS'ycomorus Lin.'] is knotty and not 

 easily split ; it is used much in the construction of sakias. Its fruits grow 

 from the trunk, but do not ripen unless cut. 



" 3. The Acacia nilotica (saat) is used for hedges and enclosures ; it is also 

 employed for boat-building on the Nile, for sakias, and for charcoal. In 

 Upper Egypt gum is extracted from this tree. Boats are constructed in 

 Senaar of the saat, which comes down the Nile for sale. Its fruit, called 

 karat, is used for tanning, and it completely impregnates the leather in forty 

 days ; so tanned, the leather resists heat admirably, but not humidity. 



" 4. The etl is a tree of light wood, which flourishes with so small a quantity 

 of water as to grow on the skirts of the desert. Its appearance resembles the 

 cypress. 



" 5. The nebk is a tree bearing fruit resembling olives, whose wood is 

 employed for various purposes. 



" 6. The doum (Hyphsene coriacea) is a dichotomous palm ; the wood is 

 used for the making of sakias. It is of a fibrous texture, not easily split. 



" 7. The date palm (Phoenix dactylifera Lin.) is the most common and 

 most useful of Egyptian trees. It is easily propagated by the ofF-shoots from 

 the roots : of its leaves, brooms and brushes are made ; of the lif, by which 

 the branches are bound together, all sorts of cordage ; the trunk is employed 

 for house building and many other purposes j and the fruit, of universal con- 

 sumption. 



" Olive trees are now introduced in large quantities, and produce fruit in 

 three years. 



" Orange trees are very numerous in the province of Galiub, and lemon 

 trees are common. There are many plum trees, and some apple and peach 

 trees ; large quantities of figs and cacti. 



" There are few medicinal trees j among which, the khiar shember's fruit is 

 used for purging. 



" The fibres which bind together the branches of the date trees are an 

 article of great consumption in that country, being used for purposes of 

 cordage : in the Fayoum, these fibres (/j/") are of a peculiarly fine quality. 



" Onions. — There is a very large production of onions in Egypt, far larger 

 than that of potatoes, which, indeed, do not succeed well in the rich alluvial 

 soil. The ordinary price of onions is from 4 to 6 piastres per cantar, or 

 about \s. the cwt. ; but the price was trebled in 1837, from the general 

 deficiency of food. So large is the consumption, from the employment of 

 the onion in such a variety of dishes, and for such a variety of purposes, 

 that a person of the opulent ranks assured me he consumed in his family, 

 whose annual expenditure was about 300/. sterling per annum, nearly two 

 tons of onions." 



The expense of living for an agricultural labourer in Egypt 

 is about half the price of labour ; and it is a curious fact, that 

 the proportion between the expense of living and wages for the 

 lowest description of labour was the same in England about the 

 time of Elizabeth, and, in fact, has been nearly the same in all 

 countries where the labourer had few or no enjoyments of an 

 intellectual nature ; in short, previously to the time when la- 

 bourers could read. In the present century, in England, the 



