In a country which depends upon floods and their deposit for its
fertility, one of the first questions likely to be asked by a practical
man is, What about the drains? He knows perfectly well, from reading
and report, that the evaporation of the waters that have for the time
being turned vast tracts of land literally into swamps must be enormous,
but at the same time some plan for carrying off the superabundant
moisture must be in force. Let him learn at once that in Egyptian
agriculture there are no underground tiled drains in use; but open ones
are formed upon land that requires improving, such as the rice fields
and those which, when cultivation has commenced, are found to be
impregnated with salts, while a great deal is done by the Government,
under whose direction large main cuts are dug to drain off the water on
low-lying lands.
On the rich soils water may be lying to a depth of four inches after a
flood, but it is so readily absorbed that in six hours none will be left
on the Surface; but infiltration from irrigation canals sometimes
damages the crops alongside, and in such a case as that a small catch
drain will prevent further mischief.
With regard to irrigation, two systems are carried out, the one peculiar
to Lower Egypt, the other being utilised in Upper. In Lower Egypt the
canal is used for the supply of water to the crops. In Upper Egypt the
manner adopted is technically termed the "basin system."
In this latter method embankments are formed to enclose tracts of land
well within reach of the Nile flood, which may contain from two thousand
to forty thousand acres, according to the means of, or facilities
offered to, the agriculturist. Afterwards the proceedings are
exceedingly simple. When the inundation is at its greatest height,
openings are made and the water is allowed to flow from the river till
the sandy surface is covered to a depth of six feet. Then the matter,
suspended in the muddy waters, is slowly deposited and goes on sinking
till November, when openings are made into canals, and the water is
allowed to slowly drain off and make its way back into the river, when
the surface of glistening mud that is left is considered ripe for
cultivation, and according to the season may measure perhaps four inches
in depth.
As soon as the water is gone, the farming operations begin, and in the
simplest and probably the oldest form. There is nothing more to be done
in these cases, no ploughing or harrowing; but wheat, barley, beans,
clover, linseed, and lentils are sown broadcast by the patient
labourers, the sowers often sinking knee deep in the mud as they slowly
plod or almost wade to and fro. The next proceeding is the burying of
the seed, which is generally effected by drawing a large beam of timber
over the muddy surface, though at times, when the consistency is
greater, the seed is covered in by hand-hoeing. That is all, and the
agriculturist leaves the rest for the time being to the efforts of the
sun. Germination soon begins, and rapid growth succeeds in the moist
mud; while these crops do not need or receive any further irrigation
except from rain, which may fall two or three times in the course of
growth.
But there are times when no rain at all will come to help the crops,
which, however, seem to suffer very little, from the simple fact that
the thorough saturation of the subsoil by the flood, and the constant
gentle evaporation going on, make up to a certain extent for the want of
genial showers, and the failure seems to be confined to the straw alone,
which is shorter than if its growth had been influenced by the dropping
clouds.
The floods of European lands are, of course, only occasional, accidents
due to a prevalence of storm waters, which the regular rivers and the
artificial drainage of the country have not power to carry off; while
generally they last but a short time, and instead of being beneficial
are destructive. The Nile flow is in every respect the reverse.
Instead of being occasional and of short duration, it is a part of
Nature's routine, and perfectly wondrous in its regularity; while in
place of being temporary, as in the floods of our own islands, we have
here a lasting overflow.
Again, a flood in the British Islands, where the rivers burst their
banks and spread over meadow-land and arable fields, leaves the soil
soured, sodden, and obnoxious to the plants which are still alive, whole
crops and plantations being often swept away, while those that remain
are on the high road to perishing from rottenness.
In Egypt the subsoil of sand is ready to absorb, and the ardent sun to
rapidly dry, the surface of the mud as soon as the flood sinks, after
its stay of months; while the rapidity of growth soon makes up for the,
so to speak, dormant state of the cultivated ground that has been
flooded, and, as aforesaid, the water departs, leaving its fertilising
riches behind. Then, as stated, follows without further tilling the
sowing of the crops, which result in abundant growth. This annual
regularity is only marred by the extent of the inundation, which is
calculated and divided by the Egyptians into high flood, mean flood, and
poor flood, according to how far the waters extend when they leave their
natural bed.
It is calculated that in the first case, when the Nile has reached its
highest point, it has risen to thirty-three feet; in the second case,
the mean flood, thirty feet; and in the third, or poor flood,
twenty-three feet above its bed. As a matter of course, the higher the
flood the wider spread is the inundation, and the deeper the deposit of
fertile mud left upon the land when the river has returned to its
ordinary limits.
Stay-at-home people are accustomed to look upon Holland as the land of
canals, and the face of this carefully cultivated country is monumental
as a specimen of a nation's industry in cutting waterways for the double
purpose of draining and traffic, while its drains are as admirable as
they are great. Wide tracts of land have been turned from sandy wastes
and swamps into fertile meadows and carefully cultivated fields by the
Dutch engineers, who have also left traces of their handiwork upon the
east coast of England in the drainage of the fens.
But, leaving the supposed canals of the planet Mars to the imaginations
of astronomers, it is safe to say that Egypt bears off the palm for
works of this description. The ancients knew of their value, and
enormous cuts were made by the help of slave labour, and were left to
survive the rolling away of centuries, and where not duly cared for, and
filled up by the drifting sand, have lain ready to be cleared out,
deepened and brought into use again. These have been added to, till at
the present time it can be said that the system of canals connected with
the main river for the purposes of portage and for perennial irrigation
cannot be equalled anywhere in the world.
The barrage of the Delta is of incalculable value, since by closing the
sluices the head of water is raised and irrigation made more easy, while
the works of this description lately carried out upon the Nile at
Assiout and Assouan conserve immense bodies of water, which have
formerly flowed regularly down to the sea, carrying with them millions
of tons of fertilising mud or warp, with the equatorial washings of the
rich, untrodden land. This solution of plant-making soil has gone on
downward towards the sea from untold ages, forming by degrees the vast
Delta, beside that which was lost to the service of man, merely choking
up and making shallow the many watercourses into which the Nile waters
have been broken up, and altering the positions of ancient ports and
maritime cities now distant from the sea.