THE TECHNOLOGIST. [June 1, 1865. 



500 NOTES ON EGYPTIAN AGRICULTURE. 



get anything like a tilth, the fellaheen must plough and cross plough at 

 least five times. They then drag a large, flat, smooth framework of 

 wood, on which the fellah stands, over the land to level and pulverise 

 it, after which, with a small, short-handled, broad-bladed hand hoe, the 

 hlade making an angle of 45° with the heft, they set up the land in 

 ridges and arrange their water furrows for irrigation, at which they are 

 very clever. This hand-hoe, called a " fass," is the national implement, 

 and suits well the national habit of squatting when at work. 



About the only other implement in use, is the native threshing 

 machine, a wooden framework or chariot, running on sharp iron discs 

 or skeiths, which they drive over the grain and straw in a circle ; the 

 action of the discs and of the animals treading bruises and cuts up the 

 straw in short lengths and insufficiently threshes the gram, the whole is 

 then piled up in the middle of the circle, and a fresh supply strewn in 

 the track of the charioteer. To winnow the grain, they take a heap of 

 the mixture and toss it up in the air with a wooden shovel, when the 

 wind blows the straw chaff and shavings to a little distance, the grain 

 falling straight to the -round. The chopped, bruised straw, &c, with a 

 good deal of grain in it, is given to the animals for fodder, whilst the 

 grain, with a good deal of dirt in it, is garnered or sold without further 

 operation. The Arabs had carried the same methods to Spain and Por- 

 tugal, where they are in use to the present day, so that, owing to the 

 demand for chopped bruised straw, our makers of threshing machines 

 (all warranted to produce a market sample) must adjust their wares 

 accordingly. 



It may be broadly stated that, with good cultivation and water, the 

 soil of Egypt will grow anything. It is the ohl story : to make a good 

 seed bed, the land must be pulverised to a good depth. With a fine 

 climate and soil a crop may be got, as in Peru, by one man scratching a 

 furrow, another following dropping in the seed and stamping the earth 

 over with his fout, but only interior crops are obtained in this way 

 under the most favourable conditions. 



"What can be done by properly pulverising and deep stirring the 

 soil in Egypt has been shown by the use of the steam-plough ; the 

 Bteam-grown cotton of His Highness the Viceroy and His Highness 

 Halim Pasha fetching far higher prices in the market than any other. 

 It is worth mentioning that, in April last, within sight and at a short 

 distance from the Pyramids, there was a peaceful contest between 

 Howard's and Fowler's steam-ploughs, very near the spot where took 

 place ihe battle between the Mamelukes and the French troops under 

 Napoleon, known as the Battle of the Pyramids. 



With regard to the saltness of the subsoil the following is interest- 

 ing ; — A. gentleman of standing at Suez, finding when the French 

 company made the cutting for the Suez water-canal (the supplement of 

 the great work) that though a good coating of sand was on the top of 

 the land, clay was the subsoil, conceived the idea of bringing the clay 



