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Annual Report of the 
duced one good annual crop, merely from the annual overflow; but 
where artificial watering was introduced and followed up, three 
annual crops were the products of that wondrous land. We have 
no reason to believe that their cultivation of the soil was superior 
to that in practice in civilized nations to-day: but, learning the 
necessity of irrigation at a very early day, they followed it up, and 
brought it to a degree of perfection that has never been equaled in 
the history of our race. 
And what was the result? Egypt was a long, narrow strip of 
territory, variously estimated to contain from 12,000 to 18,000 
square miles; or, perhaps, one-fourth as much territory as is con¬ 
tained in the state of Wisconsin. What the population really was 
is not definitelv known. Yet, it is certain it ran into tens of mil- 
lions. It was the boast of Thebes that although she contained 
one hundred gates, she could send out ten thousand fighting men from 
each gate. Nor was this all. After feeding the millions of her 
own land, Egypt was still the granary of the then known world. 
Her agricultural resources seem to have been watched with zealous 
interest for many hundred years after her people had ceased to 
build either p3^ramids or temples, or even to repair those that were 
falling into decay. For more than two thousand years was this in¬ 
terest protected and encouraged, and so perfect and permanent had 
the improvements been made, that for generations after the death 
of the beautiful and voluptuous Cleopatra, who was the last of the 
native rulers, and at whose death Egypt became a Roman Province, 
they still boasted that even their captors were obliged to come to 
them for bread. We have no means of knowing how extensive 
the crops actually were, or their yield per acre; but the fact that 
the other nations, and almost all of the large cities of the known 
world, turned with eager gaze to this garden spot of the earth for 
a large share of their bread, proved conclusively that Egyptian Ag¬ 
riculture was early brought to, and for a long time maintained in, 
a very high and prosperous condition. 
If we turn from Egypt to other ancient nations, we find nothing 
at all comparable to her in agricultural prosperity. There is but 
little doubt that the plains of the Euphrates around Babylon, were 
once in the highest state of cultivation, and that it was done by 
means of irrigation, although we have but little information with 
regard to it. In short, after leaving Egypt there is very little in an- 
