THE TROPICAL AQRIOULTUR18T. 
[October 
S76 
VEGETABLE “ BUTTER.” 
Some time ago the London Grocer cal'od attoiitioii 
to a now induatry which has sprang np in Oeritiany, 
espcoially at Mannheim, for the inanufiictureof ” butter” 
from vegetable souroes. So far this industry has been 
suocessfni, and now wo bear that it is sjireadiiig into 
Franco. M. F. Jacn, writing in the Monitcur Scienti- 
Jique, rear ntly stated that tho manufacture of a vege- 
table hulter from tho oil obtained from oooonuls is 
developing into a largo businrsH it) Franco as well ns 
in Get many. 1). Schliuk’s method is the one most 
favored by manufacturers. It depends niton tho Ireat- 
mont of the coconut oils with alcohol and animal 
charcoal, which removes tho volatile and fragrant fatty 
acids of tho aromatic oils, and make the oils perfectly 
white. The product thns obtained is a perfectly white 
mass, of the consistency of butter, and of a sweet 
neutral, agreeable flavour melliiig at 2.') dig. cent,, and 
remarkably free from auy tciidoncy to turn rancid. 
Its analysis reveals the following composition : Patty 
matter, 99'632 per coot.; mineral matter, 0 011 per 
cent.) water 0'3S7 per cent. Experiments conducted 
by various medical men on the indigcstibility of 
vegetable butter go to show that it exercises no harmful 
influence upon the animal funotioiis . — American Grocer. 
IRRIGATION IN EGYPT. 
1.— The Nile Babraoe. 
• * e » 
In 1842 a Fronoh engineer, named Mongel Bog, 
suggested tho building of barrages across the river, 
where it divides into the Rosetta and Damietta 
branches, about 12 milos below Cairo, and of ooiii- 
bining with these fortifications of considerable 
strength for the purpose of arresting the progress 
of any invader, and storing munitions of war. Tho 
idea exactly fell in with the military views of Moliemet 
All, who proposed to make the Nile bifurcation a 
sort of military capital, and the works were sanc- 
tioned and started in 1843. Tho barrages consisted 
of two long masonry dams or bridges, the arclios 
of which wdieu closed were to hold tho water up, 
or opened to permit tho pa3sa"e of floods- There 
were 61 of suoli arches in the Rosetta barrage and 
71 in the Damietta, with locks tor navigation on each 
side of both ; the object being to keep tho water at 
the same level in all seasons so as to entirely super- 
sede tho necessity for lifting throughout the district 
below, and remove tho diffliciilties of navigation when 
the Nile fell to its lowest. Mehemet AU died in 18-l.s, 
and in 1853 his successor, Abbas Pasha, dismissed 
Mongel Beg and directed another engineer, llazhar 
Beg, to ftnisli tho work on Mongol Bog’s plan. In 
1861 it was completed at a cost of -£1,800,000, exchisivo 
of forced hilionr, an additional sum, estimated at 
about 21 millions sterling having been spent on forti- 
fications, canal heads, &c. As was not unconimou 
in Egypt a very largo percentage of tliese sums 
must have gone in the etcetera; iiotliing like -1 
millions was ever forthcoming in masonry. 
Cracks appeared almost as soon as tho work was 
finished; a part gave way when the gates were closed ; 
the water worked under tho foundation and exten- 
sivej settlements ooouiTcd. Repeated oominissions of 
inquiry sat on it. In 1867 it was abandoned alto- 
gether, and finally pronounced a liopeless failure. 
In the next 15 years rt was nothing but an impedi- 
ment to navigation, the passage of tho locks being 
a difficult and expensive undei taking. Add to this 
many of the channels below had falloit out of use, 
others had been so neglected as to ho capable of a 
very small proportion of their proper duty, had become 
ill fact not so much canals, as natural cimnnela 
in which tho Nile rose and fell without any regu- 
lation whatever. When Sir Colin Scott- Moncricff 
and tho staff of Anglo-Indian engineers, were called 
in to carry out the policy of Lord Dufferin, it was 
notorious tlie whole system of Egyptian irrigation 
liad for years been steadily going down hill from 
bad to worse. While giving every credit to these 
officers, there is, however, no necessity to depreciate 
their prodeocBSers, the Freueh ongineers. In the 
first place, the latter to a great extent no doubt 
had their hands tied by tho Pashas, had often to 
suit their schemes to tho political notions of tho 
day. The country is hardly provided witli means of 
coiurannication, and instead of touring about and 
seeing matters for tlieniselvea, tliey had to direct 
Arab subordinates from Cairo. In tiie second, with 
all their scientific training, they had not tho practical 
oxpoiionco of tlto Anglo-Indian officers, who through- 
out their service had boon aocustoniod to deal with 
very similar conditions, to adapt means to ends in 
every possible way, to be engineers, contractors, and 
revenue officers, and in India to deal with very similar 
Oriental people. What they so successfuly accom- 
pli.shcd in Egypt their brother officers have been 
doing equally well every year in this country. 
Such was the state of tilings in 1883, obviously 
not particularly hopeful. There was a proposal 
on foot tor a system of irrigation by pumps to cost 
some .£70(1,1X10 down, and £250,(X)0 yearly for main- 
tenance. But before embarking on this Bit Scotl- 
Monorioff decided to give tho old barrages, neg- 
lected for 15 years, a trial. Some bits wore patched 
up in 1884 and 1885, at a cost of £44,000 ; the water 
was kept up during the first low Nile season to 7 
feet, and the next year to nearly 10 foot, which ac- 
oomplished much. Fortune favoured tho enterprise ; 
there was a bumper cotton crop, the cultivators and 
commercial community wore delighted with tho result, 
tho merchants of Alexandria voted an address. In 
1885 the great Powers authorised the loan of a million 
sterling for special constructional works, and last 
year saw tho chief engineering work of modern Egypt 
successfully completod, at tho modest cost of about 
£420,(XX1. 
The foundations of the barrages rested on fine river 
sand and Nile mud. When the gates wore closed, 
tlie difforeiioe of level between the water of tho Nile 
above and below the dam was very considerable ; 
during tho low Nilo of .June 1885 this difference 
amounted to 10 feel, and tho percolation by hydrostatic 
pressure under the foundations varied proportionately, 
as this difference increased ordimiiiisnod. The prob- 
lem to be first solved was therefore to counteract 
this tendency, either by some form of construction 
that should provide greatly increased depth of foun- 
dations, or by broadening these out horizontally. In 
the case of existing foundations, tho former was ob- 
viously impracticable, and any adequate additional 
vertical protection would have been of doubtful 
value, if not of prohibitive cost. The engineers, 
therefore, fell back on their Indian experience of 
similar work. For instance, in tlie ease of tlie Ukhia 
dam across tho Jumna bolow Delhi, the river is a 
mass of loose rubble stone with absolutely no foun- 
dations, whicli holds up Biioccsstully 10 feot of water. 
There tho construction is so broadened out that tho 
weight of tho rivor per lineal foot is about 40 times 
as groat as the weight of water pressure against it. 
In tlio case of the Nile bai-ragcs, it was dotormiiiod 
to make tlio weight of tho submerged masonry bear 
a ratio of not less than .50 times tins pressure. A 
solid bed of Portland eomaut, 4 feet thick, was put over 
liie old fiooring and tuider the arches. An up-stream 
apron about 85 feet wide, and a heavy masonry 
pavement of dressed stone below were added, as also 
a, row of sheet piling 16 feet deep along tho edge of 
tlie apron. The difficulties of this construction were 
enormously increased by tlm springs constantly met 
with as the work proceeded, and by the necessity 
to iiold up tho water during the low Nilo season 
every year. A few avolies could only be dealt witli 
at a time, enclosed by carefully constructed earthen 
coffer dams and assisted by continuous pumping. 
Preliminary operations wore begun in Marcii 1880, 
the work was taken up in real earnest in 1887 under 
Lieutenant-Colonel Western witli Mr. A. Reid as 
the Resident Engineer, and tho wholo practically 
completed, both for tlio Rosetta and Damietta 
hranches, witli permanent heads for the Beherah, 
Menoufioh and Tewfiki canals last year. For tho new 
regulators wrought iron gates have boon provided, 
worked by travelling cranes, with Mr. Stonoy’s patent 
rollers, and an excellent tramway runs over the 
whole length of both bridges to tho offices, work 
