238 
Variation in iJic Price and Supply qf Wheat. 
The few remaining -woods ought to be looked after in some way or other , 
and tlie trees ]iro[x;rly felled Instead of their being burned down as they con- 
tinually are. If no efficient measures are adopted to prevent this havoc 
Ehodes will become au arid rock like the surrounding smaller islands, which 
were formerly, it would seem, well wooded and watered. This island is still 
capable of producinci;, as in former times, cereals, fine fruits, vegetables, and 
other articles of prime necessity, in abundance ; but everything is neglected, 
the inhabitants being content to raise just sufficient for their wants. 
Egtpt. 
Report by Mb. Consul Stanley on the Trade and Commerce of tile 
Port of Alexandria for the Year 1866. — The development of the railways 
and the introduction of steam power for irrigation, cotton-gins, and pressure, 
have added largely to the coal required for the country ; and the wealth of the 
people, consequent on the profits derived fiom the cultivation of cotton, has 
largely contributed to the general use of British manufactured goods amongst 
the rural population. 
In 1862 cotton was first planted, to the almost total exclusion of cereals. 
Agriculture. — The present condition of the agricultural industry of Egypt 
has been so entirely diverted from the rotation of crops in its normal state that 
any person now going through the country to take a view of the produce of 
the soil would be altogether misled. The enormous profits which were realised 
by the growth of cotton during the American war have cause^this. When 
the Cotton Supply Association sent out their Secretary, with Dr. Forbes, to 
India, those gentlemen were bearers of a memorial to the late Viceroy Said 
Pasha, praying his Highness to use every possible effort to encourage the culti- 
vation of cotton. ITie replj' was characteristic, and evinced a correct impres- 
sion and almost a prophetic dread of the revolution that would be produced by 
an immoderately enhanced price for cotton. He said, " Prices alone will 
prove a sufficient stimulus without any effort on my part ; but God forbid 
that I should ever see the abandonment of the ordinary succession of crops 
for the production of cotton, to the exclusion of those products on which we 
subsist." 
Within a short period from that time Egypt, which had ever been a large 
exporter of grain, beans, &c., had to seek food from other countries, and 
became an extensive importer. 
Grain was considerably dearer in the interior than at Alexandria ; in some 
places absolute famine ensued. 
An undesirable change was wrought, the recovery from which will be as 
.slow as its accomplishment was rapid. 
The value of land was quadrupled ; wages rose in an equal ratio ; labourers 
earned so easily sufficient for their wants that they became indolent ; an ex- 
cessive luxury sprang up, and that not of a nature to benefit the commercial 
world, being displayed in a demand for white slave girls, costly pipes, and 
other such appliances, which do not much benefit the industrious world 
without. Meanwhile the laud, from the constant crops of cotton in succession, 
has become impoverished. 
Cotton, however, has long been, and must continue to be, the most im- 
portant production of Egypt. It is sown in March or A]>ril, and arrives at 
maturity in August or September. An average yield in good summei's is 
300 lbs. to the acre ; the New Orleans variety has been found to yield BOO lbs. 
pel' acre ; but it is found unmarketable, and is therefore little cultivated. 
To show tlie difl'erent products of Egypt, and the average amount of each, I 
give a statement of tlie way a large farm of the late El Hami Pasha was 
divided eight years ago. 
