Reports from the highest quarters supply abundant statistics of the
great advantage already manifested by the completion of the Nile
Barrage. The increase of land available for culture through the
conservation of the water that has always run to waste, and the
augmented powers supplied for irrigation by holding up such vast bodies
of water, have resulted in returns that are striking in the extreme, and
this after so short a time has elapsed since the sluices were completed
and the great dams put to the test. The value of land and rentals have
gone up, water has been utilised at earlier dates than were customary of
old, and everything points not only to stability but to a future for
Egypt such as could not have been dreamed of a score of years ago. In
connection, therefore, with its future prospects from an agricultural
point of view, and the encouragement given by the Government to those
who are disposed to enter upon a business career in this favoured
country, so as to bring to bear experience, the knowledge of culture,
and the use of improved implements to add vastly to Egypt's produce, a
short sketch of what has been done by one whose faith in the delta as a
vast agricultural centre has always been strong, will not here be out of
place.
We allude to the efforts made by his Highness the Khedive in acquiring
and reclaiming tracts of land in the neighbourhood of Cairo and turning
them into fertile farms.
A trip to one of these nearest to Cairo struck a visitor directly as
being hall-marked by the stamp "Progress," for it was reached by a
little model railway which skirts his Highness's estates. After leaving
the station, a short drive brings the visitor almost at once to a series
of scenes indicating careful management and model farming, though there
is much in it that is novel to an English eye, consequent on its being
contrived to suit the exigencies of an Eastern country where but little
rain is known to fall.
One of the first objects reached upon entering the cultivated land was
the great granary or store, composed of spacious erections of but one
storey high, low-roofed, and enclosing a large central square. In some
of these buildings were stored up sacks of corn, while in others lay
large heaps of the newly picked cotton, of whose cultivation more will
be said elsewhere.
The land around this highly cultivated domain is very fertile, and the
air exhilarating; and at present it is letting at the rate of 10 pounds
per feddan, which represents the Egyptian acre, something larger than
our own. This is the present price, for enterprise so far has done
little upon this side of Cairo in the shape of market gardening,
although the district is only twelve minutes by rail from the centre of
this important city, and one hour's distance for a walking horse and
cart.
Attached to the building above referred to were well-erected ranges of
cattle-sheds, not occupied for fattening purposes, but for the culture
of the farm, this culture being carried on not by horses, but by oxen--
buffaloes and ordinary bullocks--which are regularly used, as at one
time in Old England, yoked to the plough, harrow, or roller, and on some
of the high grounds which are let by his Highness, for turning the
water-wheels, though on the model farms steam power only is used for the
purposes of irrigation.
These sheds are built in the same fashion as the granary, a noteworthy
point in connection with the big, sleek, well-fed occupants being that
instead of, as in English fashion, standing in one long row with their
backs to the visitor, they are ranged in ranks, fifty-six in all,
sideways to the spectator, facing so many feeding troughs, and each
provided with its tethering halter and a sliding iron ring attached to
an iron bar, giving freedom to each animal to stand or lie down at its
pleasure without any risk of self-inflicted injury.
As a specimen of the model-farm-like erection of these buildings, it may
be stated that the feeding troughs are of solid masonry, made impervious
and clean by an inner lining of zinc. No partitions are used to
separate these draught cattle, but by the arrangement of the haltering
they can be kept at such a distance that no two could come into contact.
Everything was beautifully clean, the great animals being amply
supplied with dry earth for litter, its disinfecting qualities being
admirable from a cleanly point of view, and valuable for the purposes of
the farm.
One of the principal foods for cattle upon the farm is _Tibn_, as it is
called by the Egyptians--chopped or bruised straw, made more nutritious,
according to the needs of the animal in feeding, by the addition of
beans or barley; and in the progress across the place a huge stack of
this chaff-like provender was passed, some ten feet high, but totally
unprotected from the weather by thatch. The reply to questions by the
manager was simple in the extreme, yet in itself a chapter on the
beautiful nature of the climate. The reason why the stack had no
protecting thatch was that there was no need, the rain was so trifling,
and when the wind and its habit of scattering stacks was mentioned, the
inquirer was told that it did no harm.
In passing one enclosure sheep were encountered--a class of farming, as
stated elsewhere, little affected on account of the absence of grass
downs and ordinary grazing fields; but these were in a
ealthy, flourishing state, well fleeced, with a fine white
semi-transparent-looking wool, indicating relationship to the Angora
breed, specimens of the latter being seen later on in fold.
Some of the fields had been devoted to the growth of cotton. This had
lately been picked and transferred to the great store, the wood of the
beautiful plant so stored being yet upon the ground waiting for transfer
to the stacks for fuel purposes, it being utilised for the steam engines
used upon the farm, especially for working the water-raising machinery
so extensively needed in this occasionally thirsty land.
Farther on an implement was being used in preparing fields for
irrigation; and as in its simplicity of construction it was dragged over
the great enclosure, it drew up the well-tilled, friable soil into
ridges or slightly raised portions whose object was to regulate the flow
of irrigating water equally all over the field, so that when it was
flooded no portion should get more than its due share, one part being
swamped while another would be comparatively dry. Simple in the extreme
in its construction, as the illustration shows, the implement was
thoroughly efficient in the way in which it did its work, with but
slight exertion on the part of the sluggish oxen by which it was drawn.
All this was novel, yet paradoxically old-world and strange, but in the
next field there was a combination of the old and new--a pair of oxen
used as in Saxon times, and down to not so many years back even near
London, patiently plodding along beneath their yoke and drawing an
emanation from our Eastern counties in the shape of a Ransome and Sims'
harrow, light and effective, apparently as much at home and progressing
as easily as if on a Suffolk farm.
There was a familiarity about these fields which took off the dead
monotony of the level, for they were surrounded by good-sized,
well-grown trees, whose aspect betokened health and a suitability of
climate, while on a nearer approach they showed their foreignness to the
soil, proving to be a variety of the well-known Siberian crab, or cherry
apple, beloved of boys, but here grown in such bulk as to suggest being
used for crushing and utilising in some special way.
One thing that strikes the European in Egypt, when passing beyond the
more carefully cultivated portions near the city, is the absence of
trees other than the indigenous palms; but here, in these
newly-reclaimed portions, much has been done, as already mentioned, in
the way of planting. For instance, the approaches to a range of
buildings in connection with this farm were studded with acacias,
ornamenting what proved to be the pigeon houses which are such a regular
adjunct to an Egyptian cultivator's home. Their occupants bear a strong
resemblance to our own blue rocks, or wood pigeons. Another building
was the dairy farmhouse, well-built, simple, and most suitable; while in
the neighbouring fields the cows were pasturing after the economical
plan carried out in our Channel Islands--where each milk-producer is not
allowed to wander through and waste the precious herbage at her own
sweet will, but is tethered to a stake--while the calves had an
enclosure to themselves. Here were many examples of experiments being
tried to improve the breed, the favourite animal being a cross between
the Swiss--Fribourg--and native; and in this cross-breeding only those
proved to be advantageous are retained. Such as do not show some marked
advance upon the native stock, either for breeding or the production of
milk, are sold.
One very fine sire was close at hand--a Swiss bull with a noble head and
short curved horns, fine and long of coat, which about brow and neck
formed itself into short, crisp curls like those that cluster upon the
brow of the classic Hercules. This grand animal greatly resembled, save
that it was much larger, one of the choice and jealously guarded
patriarchs of a Jersey cattle-shed; while his home-like aspect was added
to greatly by the familiar ring in the nose, which is not considered
necessary for the native animals.
A little farther on were those rather uncouth-looking, heavily-horned
animals, the buffaloes, which run side by side in Egyptian estimation
with the ordinary cattle for all practical purposes. The improvement in
their breed is also studied by the addition of fresh blood and the
choice of sires remarkable for special qualities. One particularly good
specimen was pointed out, distinguished by the heavy hump forward, a
fine beast lately brought from the Soudan.
There are two distinct breeds of buffalo utilised in this country--the
productions of Upper and Lower Egypt, those from the latter district
being reckoned the better.
In this portion of the farm and around the buildings fruit trees were
plentiful, diversifying the scene and adding greatly to its
attractiveness, and looking novel to a visitor from Europe, who saw an
abundant growth of the Seville or bitter orange, and the cool,
greeny-grey picturesque olive of Southern Europe and the East.
Among other fruit trees seen here were some bearing long pods, called
_chiar shambar_ by the natives. The fruit of these trees, which is long
and green, but which turns black soon after picking, seemed at a
distance like a huge bean, suggesting that the fruit was akin to the
carob or locust bean, this idea being emphasised by the sweet glutinous
pulp in which the seeds were buried. This pulp is pleasant to the
taste, but slightly bitter, and is largely used by the natives boiled up
with water, as a drink on account of its medicinal qualities.
Taken all in all, the visit to the Khedive's farm was most attractive,
and pregnant with proofs of the fertility of the well-tended land, for
on every side were examples of the successful culture of many of the
agricultural products treated of in detail from the notes of the
student-like superintendent, who has all in his charge.
The place, as before said, may be regarded as a model and example of
what can be done with land that has been looked upon for ages as so much
desert, when all that was required was industry, application, and the
ingenuity necessary for extending the action of the Nile flood. Nature
has always been ready to do the rest.
The Khedive has another tract of farm land, which he purchased some time
back, about two kilometres from the estate just described, at Koubbeh.
This is Mostorod, where he has a simple-looking villa. On the way here
one of the first things that attract the attention of an Englishman is
that home-like contrivance so often missing in foreign countries--a
hedge dividing the fields from the roadway and separating them from each
other. These were unknown before the time of Abbas Helmi the Second,
and what may be done in time to come in the surroundings of farms by
means of the simple, well cut back hawthorn remains to be proved. Here
the shrubby growth, chosen for its neat form and comparatively rapid
development, is the bitter orange.
At Mostorod many of the surroundings are marked by the energetic
proceedings of the practical farmer. Here steam is at work, like the
patient slave it is, forming the motive power in one case for raising
water for all farming purposes, in another setting in action the mills,
which rapidly turn out and clean the meal ground from wheat and Indian
corn.
Buildings are here containing the various grains and seeds; others are
the storehouses for one or other of the three pickings produced in the
cultivation of cotton; and at the entrance of every building, just
inside the door, there is a pitch pine wood frame, with its glass
covering, and a paper on which is a record of the amount and nature of
whatever is brought in or taken out of the building in the shape of
corn, cotton, seed, or whatever may be stored.
Here, in opposition to much that is modern, there is a large,
old-fashioned Egyptian stable, very thick of wall. The building is
divided into two chambers, connected and lit from overhead, the light
coming through the roof of wood and rafters thickly thatched with reeds.
These rafters are supported by thick round columns formed of the
ancient, sun-dried brick for which Egypt has long been famed. Near by
something of the old-world fashion of the place was visible in a typical
grinding mill such as may be seen in common use in pretty well every
village. It had a chamber to itself, and differed little from those
which might have been seen in England fifty or a hundred years ago, set
in action by an often blindfolded horse, but here worked by a bullock.
Ornamentation is not wanting at Mostorod, for the villa has its garden
brightened by fruit trees, and the pillar-stemmed palms, with their
leafy crowns, are frequent objects in the transparent, sunny air.
Close at hand is the village on the Khedivial estate. In it the streets
are narrow and the houses of one height, thoroughly waterproof, and of
the familiar construction, of sun-dried bricks covered with white
plaster, and, being of an earlier date in the improvement the Khedive is
striving for in the poorer class dwellings, not to be compared with the
spick and span new houses he has lately had erected at Mariout, not far
from Alexandria.
Hard by this village is a very large barn or stack yard with more native
pigeon houses, the whole of the surroundings being extremely quaint and
picturesque.
Again, a short distance onward stands the native village of Mostorod,
with its attractive little mosque and a tomb erected to the memory of a
saint.
The Ismailia Canal supplies water to the Koubbeh and Mostorod estates,
and in this neighbourhood is a good deal of very valuable agricultural
land, some portions of which are let to the fellaheen for three months
in a year, so as to enable them to grow a crop of maize.
Hereabouts, tethered in the clover fields, a herd of the Khedive's
camels are pastured, many of these being bred for carrying purposes,
others (the slighter of build) for riding and speed. The scene is
attractive from its verdure, but comparatively treeless, though it is
worthy of mention that two solitary weeping willows do their best to
adorn the landscape--a plain with the suggestions of home in the shape
of lapwings, or birds bearing a very strong resemblance, which fly up
here and there.
This estate is close to Heliopolis--the ancient On--where almost the
only suggestions of the City of the Sun are the sunshine and a great
square piece of white stone, bearing hieroglyphs, and in perfect
preservation, while in the distance stands up in solitary state the
far-famed Obelisk.