AGRICULTURE. Egypt is essentially an agri cultural country, two-thirds of the inhabitants with declared occupations being engaged in farm ing. But Egypt differs widely in this respect from most other countries by reason of its de pendence on the annual overflow of the Nile or artificial irrigation, for the raising of crops. (For a description of this river and its floods. see NILE.) Since the British occupation in 1C82, great progress has been made toward the full utilization of the annual overflow. by- the con struction or improvement of huge dams. parti•u larly the Barrage at the head of the Delta. \Odell raises the level of the river and permits the per ennial irrigation of a large part of the Delta lands. The soil. when irrigated, is of extraordinary fer tility, owing to the amount of organic matter contained in the waters of the Nile. Three crops a year may be raised wherever percnni.11 irrigation is supplied. The erops in the winter season (December to Starch), when the Nile carries water in excess of actual needs of agricul ture, are wheat, beans, barley. vegetables, and clover. The crops of summer (April to .July) are cotton, sugar-cane, millet, rice, vegetables, and fruit. This is part of the season when the river is at its lowest. There can be little summer tillage excepting where perennial irrigation is supplied. The present irrigation plans, including the great storage reservoir above Assuan (see NILE), have in view a great extension of the area of sunum•r crops through the release of waters stored in the flood period. The crops of the flood season are maize and toil let. The total cultivated area in Egypt is about 6,000,000 acres.
In the district of the Delta most of the culti vated area is under perennial irrigation. In the region above the Delta only about one-fifth of the cultivated area has this benefit. The richest crops are raised in the Delta and in the Sell Canal areas of :Upper Egypt. In the broadest sense, the staple crops are cotton in the Delta and cereals both in the Delta and in Upper Egypt. Egyptian cotton has been recognized ,tree 1821 as supplying a long fibre unsurpassed in quality except by American Sea Island. The crop, about one-tenth as large as that of the United States, is in demand in all manufacturing countries for the finer qualities of goods in which strength and lustre of fibre are required. Cotton-culture is rapidly extending in Upper Egypt. but nine-tenths of the crop is still in the Delta. Raw silk is produced to a small extent. The rice crop is diminishing in most districts; it is barely profitable. When the extensive salt lands in the Delta along the Mediterranean shall have been reclaimed, it is expected that Egypt will grow all the rice needed. At present, large quantities are imported. Wheat and maize are very large food crops. the surplus being sent to Europe. The wheat area is about equally distributed between the Delta and the rest of Egypt, but maize-cultu•e predominates in the Delta.
In regard to the form of tenure the land is divided into three classes: (1) The Kharaji, or land owned by the State. comprising about three fourths of the land under cultivation, most ly rented in small parcels to the natives; (2) the Ushuri, or land originally granted in fee to large landholders, comprising less than one fourth of the cultivated land, subject to a tax equal to about one-third of the rent paid by the fellahs or tenantry: (3) the Wakf lands, or lands belonging to the mosques and charitable institutions, and rented by them, usually for long terms. In the first half of the nineteenth century.
when the treasury was impoverished by the im mense expenditures on public works, the fellahs, besides being compelled to do forced labor on public works, were r.lso forced to pay a burden SONIC rent in kind, and to sell their crops to the I;overnment at prices arbitrarily fixed by the Pasha. At present the rent is paid in money, and the farmer is in no way interfered with in the disposal of his crop. Ile has, however. another enemy, the money-lender, whose pecula dons, in view of the large indebtedness of the agricultural population, seriously alfeet the agri cultural conditions of the country. Although the legal rate of interest is only 9 per cent., the rate exacted by the money-lenders is seldom less than 40 per cent., oceasionally reaching GO per cent. Measures have 'been taken toward the elimination of usury by allowing the National I;ank to advance small stuns to the farmers at 10 per cent., and. judging from official reports, this policy seems to have been sufficiently sue cessful to warrant its extension. The distribu tion of land in 1S94 was as follows: Of the 661,380 holdings, 513.080 contained 5 feddans and under (a leddan equals 1.0:1; 75.130 contained between 5 and 10 fedilans: 39.620, be tween 10 and :20 feddalls; 13.140. between 20 and 30 fetid:ins: 8940. between 30 and 50 feddans: and 11,430, over 50 leddans. The chief agricul tural crops and the approximate areas devoted to their cultivation arc: Wheat. 1,300.000 acres: corn, 1,600.000: cotton, 1000,000: and sugar tam.. 70.000. There are over 4.000.000 date trees, which besides supplying the home demand yield some fruit for export. The domestic live stock of the country is increasing in number. and includes nearly 1,000,000 sheep and goats (some wool is exported): 500.000 cattle and buffaloes. and 50,000 camels: while horses. mules. and don keys are found in every city and village. Hogs are raised by the Copts of Upper Egypt, and bought by Greek and German butchers to sell to European Eg\ pt. has few manufac turing establishments, and the weaving of linen and fez, which dates from an early time, is in a state of decline. There are a number of sugar refineries worked by foreign capital, Egypt having become a sugar-exporting rather than an im porting country. A few cotton-mills are also operated. The making of Egyptian cigarettes is a large export industry. Tobacco-growing is prohibited, both to prevent the use of inferior home-grown leaf in the cigarette factories and also to increase the import revenues. Export cigarettes are made chiefly of Turkish tobacco. During the reign of Mehemet Ali a number of State industrial establishments were founded. but most of them have been closed.