THE VALLEY AND DELTA OF THE NILE.—The system of irrigation which for long prevailed in Egypt was that known as basin irrigation. The banks of the Nile were strengthened by artificial embankments called berms, and by means of transverse walls the whole valley was divided into a number of basins. In this way the flood was regulated, but the only crops which could be grown were flood crops, sown immediately after the waters had withdrawn from the land, and winter crops, sown after the flood crops had been harvested. For the growth of summer crops, such as cotton or sugar-cane, perennial irrigation was necessary, and that was only possible in the immediate vicinity of the Nile, where, by primitive apparatus, a certain amount of water could be withdrawn from the river at low water and distributed over the land. Perennial irriga tion on a large scale was first begun in 1820, when a barrage was constructed below Cairo, and a number of deep canals were made in the delta ; but it was confined to that region, where, indeed, it was only partially successful, until the British occupation of the country. The barrage was then put in a state of repair, and, in order that there might be a sufficient supply of water during the summer months when the river was low, a large dam was constructed at Assuan, where the bed of the river contracts just below a wide expansion. When the Nile began to fall after its annual flood, the gates of this barrage were closed and the water ponded up to a depth of 75 feet, so that a lake about 60 miles long was formed. This water was allowed to escape during the spring and early summer, when it could be utilised for the cultivation of summer crops. At Assiut a regulating barrage was built for the better distribution of the water.ponded up at Assuan, and the Nile valley below this second barrage was then brought under perennial irriga tion. South of Assiut, however, flood irrigation alone was possible, and, in order to increase the perennially irrigated area, the Assuan dam has been raised and another regulating dam built at Esneh.
The climatic conditions of Egypt are such that, with the aid of irrigation, the land can be cultivated at all seasons of the year. The summer crops, which require to be watered regularly during the whole period of their growth, are cotton and sugar-cane ; rice and maize are Nile crops, and are sown at the time of high Nile ; the winter crops, sown later in the year, include wheat, barley, clover, and beans. Of these various crops, cotton now covers the largest area ; but, although with the development of irrigation that area is steadily increasing, the yield per feddan shows, on the whole, a no less steady decrease, as the following figures indicate :— At the same time, it is generally agreed that the quality of the cotton produced is much inferior to what it once was, and this decline, both in the yield and the quality of the staple crop of the country, is one of the most serious of the difficulties which con front the rulers of Egypt at the present time. To explain it, a
number of causes have been suggested, and it is probable that all contribute to a greater or less extent. The fellah, long accus tomed to regard water as the one thing necessary for successful cultivation, has not yet learned that he may have too much of it, and regularly over-waters his land when he has a chance ; it is also possible that seepage from the irrigation canals is raising the level of the water table and that the drainage system will require to be radically altered. Again, with the change from basin to perennial irrigation, the fertilising mud of the Nile is no longer distributed over the land to the same extent as before, and it may be that Lower Egypt, at least, is beginning to suffer from the want of it. The high price of cotton within recent years, moreover, has led to the substitution of a two years' for a three years' rotation of crops over large areas, and it has also led to the cultivation of cotton on inferior lands. The ignorance of the native cultivator has caused, it is suspected, a considerable deterioration in the quality of the seed which is used, while the growth of insect pests as a result of the destruction of bird life is said to have been considerable.
Cane sugar is chiefly cultivated in Upper Egypt along the course of the Ibrahimieh canal, which leaves the Nile at Assiut and waters a considerable tract of country on the west bank of that river. Maize covers an area nearly as great as that under cotton, the larger part of the crop being grown in Lower Egypt, which also produces the bulk of the rice raised in the country. Wheat tends to be about equally divided between Upper and Lower Egypt, but barley is more extensively cultivated in the former district than in the latter.
The peat majority of the 11,000,000 inhabitants are engaged in agriculture, and only in a few places are there any manufactures of importance. Alexandria and Damietta extract oil from cotton seed, and in several towns of the delta cotton is ginned.
THE DESERTS.—In the desert regions there is little economic activity except in the oases where the typical products of such places are grown. More important is the discovery of petroleum along the coast of the Red Sea. In the promontory of Jemsa, which is situated near the southern extremity of the Gulf of Suez, a produc tive oil field has been located, and arrangements have been made for its exploitation. Phosphates are worked at Safaga, further to the south.