EGYPTIAN EXPORTS OF ONIONS, EGGS, AND QUAILS. 501 


valued at £233,058. More detailed information for 1899 
shows that, in that year, 827,000 bags were returned as 
shipped to English ports (chiefly Liverpool and Hull), 
353,000 bags to Trieste, and 109,000 bags to Genoa, Venice, 
Marseilles, Hamburg, and Antwerp. It is stated that in 
their eagerness to put Egyptian onions on the European 
market at as early a date as possible, the bulbs are frequently 
shipped in a green state, and they are worthless on arrival ; 
while defective packing and sorting entail further loss. 
The trade in eggs is a new one, dating only from 1896, 
since when it has grown with great rapidity. In 1897 the 
number of eggs exported was nearly 14,000,000; in 1808, 
35,000,000 ; and in 1899, 40,000,000; while the value in these 
three years was £12,683, £35,031, and £44,325 respec- 
tively. The export during the first six months of 1900 
(practically the whole trade is confined to the first half of the 
year) was still more marked, the quantity reaching 60,000,000, 
and the value £83,034. Of this latter quantity, 49,000,000, 
in round numbers, were despatched to the United Kingdom, 
$8,000,000 to France, aud nearly 2,000,000 to Austria. It is 
stated that the Egyptian egg, like the fowl which produces 
it, is extremely small, and almost disappears from view in 
an ordinary English egg-cup. It will be noticed, never- 
theless, that the value of the eggs quoted above has 
jncreased in much greater proportion than the quantity. 
The trade in live quails continues on a large scale, 
although the number exported has not again reached the 
total of 1897, when it amounted to 2,071,500 birds. In 1898 
1,182,008 quails, valued at £14,138, were exported, and in 1899, 
when there was a slight increase, the number shipped was 
1,260,450, valued at 415,429. During 1900 there was aslight 
falling off. Up to October 31st the value of the quails 
exported from Egypt amounted to £13,082, as compared 
with £13,358 during the same period of 1899. This trade is 
one which does not commend itself to any true sportsman or 
lover of birds. It is slowly but surely reducing the number 
of quails that annually visit Egypt, and is the cause of many 
acts of cruelty to these birds. 
[| Foreign Office Report, Annual Series, No. 2549. Price 25d.) 
