DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4995#0081
LECTURE ON EGYPT.
may be surmounted by the skill of the engineer, as it is
due simply to the occasional deficient supply of inun-
dation water at High Nile, when the river rises less than
the average amount of some 23 feet.
To illustrate the general practice as regards rotation
of crops, I will briefly describe a farm of about 1,000
acres in the middle of the Delta.
This farm is dealt with in three portions. The first,
of 300 acres, is sown with cotton in March or April,
and about nine months later with clover. The second
portion, of about 350 acres, is sown in April or May
with Dhoura sen, a native grain somewhat resem-
bling both millet and Indian corn, now as for thou-
sands of years past the staple food of the Egyptians;
the same land is sown again in August with a slightly
different variety, known as Dhourah Nili, and with
wheat or barley about three months afterwards. The
remaining 350 acres for a part of the year are under
clover, which between November and March is fed off
by buffaloes and other animals, and for the rest of the
time is allowed to remain fallow, so as to be ready for
the next year's exhausting crop of cotton, which each
successive portion of the farm has to produce once
every three years.
One of the most amusing and characteristic sights in
Cairo is furnished by the camels and donkeys carry-
ing clover into Cairo, and especially at the bridge
over the Nile, which is open for navigation, and there-
fore closed to the road for several hours during the
may be surmounted by the skill of the engineer, as it is
due simply to the occasional deficient supply of inun-
dation water at High Nile, when the river rises less than
the average amount of some 23 feet.
To illustrate the general practice as regards rotation
of crops, I will briefly describe a farm of about 1,000
acres in the middle of the Delta.
This farm is dealt with in three portions. The first,
of 300 acres, is sown with cotton in March or April,
and about nine months later with clover. The second
portion, of about 350 acres, is sown in April or May
with Dhoura sen, a native grain somewhat resem-
bling both millet and Indian corn, now as for thou-
sands of years past the staple food of the Egyptians;
the same land is sown again in August with a slightly
different variety, known as Dhourah Nili, and with
wheat or barley about three months afterwards. The
remaining 350 acres for a part of the year are under
clover, which between November and March is fed off
by buffaloes and other animals, and for the rest of the
time is allowed to remain fallow, so as to be ready for
the next year's exhausting crop of cotton, which each
successive portion of the farm has to produce once
every three years.
One of the most amusing and characteristic sights in
Cairo is furnished by the camels and donkeys carry-
ing clover into Cairo, and especially at the bridge
over the Nile, which is open for navigation, and there-
fore closed to the road for several hours during the