*Horses*.--There are no heavy horses used here, such as the Shire or
Clydesdale, as the ploughing is done by oxen. The Arab horses--or they
might be classed as ponies--measure from fourteen to fourteen and a half
hands high. They are not of great substance, but light in the bone,
leggy, narrow-chested, though sure-footed and hardy.
Horse breeding is not attended with much success, as regards the
production of high-class stock, and re-mounts for the Army and Police
have to be purchased in Syria. The stories one reads while at school
about the Arab and his steed receive a rude shock when one witnesses the
unmerciful way in which the Arab overloads and whips his horses. They
are not true horsemen, a fact which is apparent in their methods of
training horses to harness.
The Government has supplied stud horses to various districts to try and
improve the breed. On the farm horses are used for carting, etc. They
are fed on barley and broken straw (_tibn_), the former a bad form of
provender for the horse, unless its harshness be ameliorated by
crushing.
*Cattle*.--The work-bullocks are strong, docile animals, and do the
ploughing, threshing, raising water, etc. One pair is yoked to a
plough. Four pairs are sufficient to work a farm of one hundred acres.
Their daily feed is nine pounds of beans and twenty-five pounds of
straw. The beans are split, and are eaten uncooked.
Most estates have to purchase their oxen, as very few cows are kept for
breeding purposes. The fellaheen keep one or two, and rear the young
bulls. Where the soil is richest the cattle are best. In summer the
fellah allows his young stock to get into poor condition, and this has
an effect on their growth. He has--amongst many other things--still to
learn about early maturity. Within recent years work-bullocks have
risen enormously in price, owing to more butcher's meat being consumed
by the fellaheen and the European visitors. The price of a pair of good
bullocks is 45 pounds at the age of four years. These cattle resemble
those of the Channel Islands, but are larger. They are very often
deficient in depth of rib and chest measurement, hollow-backed, and
narrow across the loins, as well as leggy, and they show want of
strength of forearm. These are some of the defects which may be
eradicated by care in selecting, mating, etc.
Cows are kept and bred from by the fellaheen, who rear the young bulls,
while, as we have seen, the cows are used for ploughing. They are not a
breed of deep milkers, but the milk is rich in butter fat, 5 per cent,
being common; and sixteen pounds of milk will give two pounds of cream,
or one pound of butter, which is in demand at from 1 shilling 6 pence to
2 shillings per pound.
Crossing with European bulls has been tried lately, with a measure of
success. Some idea of the characters of these animals may be gathered
by comparing the illustrations representing both buffalo and ordinary
bull with the experimental cross-bred animals reared upon the Khedivial
farms. It has been found that crosses between Fribourg bulls (Swiss)
and native cows improve the milking qualities and also produce an animal
with better points of breeding, without diminishing the usefulness for
draught purposes. Fine specimens are to be seen at the present time
upon the Khedive's farms. A practice common to the country is that when
the cow is milked her calf is tied up beside her and allowed afterwards
to partake of its share. If this rule be not observed, the cow will not
give up her milk.
*Buffaloes*.--Large specimens of these peculiar and useful animals have
been bred upon the Khedive's stock farm, great enterprise having been
exercised for the purposes of improvement both as draught animals and
for dairy purposes. One of the sires is a magnificent bull lately
brought by his Highness's orders from the Soudan. Both bulls and cows
are yoked for farm labour in the fields, while the latter, as dairy
stock, are in great favour, their milk being richer in butter-producing
qualities than that of the ordinary dairy cow of Europe. Eleven pounds
of buffalo milk will churn one pound of butter, but the quality is not
so good, being pale in colour, and oily. The yield of milk per
twenty-four hours is about thirty pounds.
*Donkeys*.--Unlike the despised donkey of England, the ass of Egypt is
one of the most useful of animals. It is a hardy, patient
burden-bearer, but very often ill-treated, notwithstanding its good
services. It is employed on the farm for carrying manure in bags slung
across the back, and is largely used for the saddle. A well-bred,
generously treated donkey is often of a goodly size.
*Mules*.--These are employed for carting, raising water, and other farm
work. They are very strong and useful.
*Sheep*.--Egypt is not a pastoral country, and but scant attention is
paid to these animals. They are considered a sort of by-product. When
attention is paid to them, however, they yield excellent profit. The
ram lambs at five months sell at from sixteen to twenty shillings. No
care is bestowed on selection, and breeding from "weedy" rams renders
the stock deficient in quality. The duties of the shepherd are light,
as the flock is always under his eye at pastures. A very good idea of
the Egyptian sheep can be gathered from the illustration.
But the time is rapidly approaching when all this may be changed; for
sheep-farming may be looked upon from its double advantage of their
increasing popularity for food purposes and their value for the
extension of a system of animal manuring, and thus supplying, by feeding
off crops, one of the great wants of the country. To a great extent the
poor class Egyptian has been a vegetarian, but, with the increase of
riches and prosperity in the country, Mr Wallace in his address speaks
of the growing demand for animal food, especially mutton; while he
reminds his listeners that one of the ways in which an Arab honours his
guest is by furnishing his feast with a whole roast lamb.
The Prophet Mohammed, in his sanitary laws to his followers, teaches
them to partake of mutton, in his wisdom and knowledge of its
superiority to the flesh of the ox, which is considered unclean,
pointing to the fact that even in his day cattle were known to be
affected with some form of tuberculosis, which might possibly be eaten
and thus imparted to the unfortunate partaker of the unwholesome food.
A special choice of site for sheep-farming is necessary, as a matter of
course; but portions of the country may easily be selected where they
can be kept with advantage--in the Nubarea, for instance. For not only
is the land itself undergoing change in its nature, but politically as
well. Under the present form of government and the protection to the
cultivator which has been the natural result, the farmer is becoming
freed from the risks of the past; for, unfortunately, in consequence of
a certain inborn notion that has existed among the native Egyptian that
everything he covets may be annexed, it has been found absolutely
necessary by the grower of sheep to keep an exceedingly sharp eye over
his tempting flocks, which have had to be dealt with as if they were in
an enemy's land. Driven into folds at night, this has not been
sufficient; for as there is a want here of that breed of savage dogs
fostered for their protection by the Albanian shepherds, the Egyptian
shepherd has to be supplemented by watchmen ready to stand sentry over
the flocks by night.
Sheep feeding progresses well during the time of the growing crops; but
as these pass away, that form of farming and feeding which may be looked
upon as quite modern in its application has proved most advantageous to
the keeper of sheep: we mean the plan which agitated the public mind to
so great an extent a decade or two back--ensilage--when our country rang
with reports of experimental building of costly silos, or the sinking in
suitable places of cement-lined tanks in which the newly-cut crops of
green cattle food were piled or stacked, rammed down for preservation,
and made into what one facetious writer stigmatised as "cattle jam."
The idea of the inexperienced was that this treatment of the green grass
or clover would result either in rotting or fermentation, with
spontaneous combustion to follow, as in the case of a too hurriedly made
hay or corn rick in a moist harvest time. But the operations of Nature
are as wondrous as they are puzzling, and it was found in our own
country that the crop preserved in its silo could be kept for a
reasonable length of time, and then cut out in an appetising state,
ready for the cattle in a season of scarcity.
Answering so well in Europe, with its frequent rains and superabundant
moisture, it is bound to be successful in comparatively rainless Egypt,
where the clover can be cut at the exact necessary period and kept ready
for use as required--a fact which is likely to give a great impetus to
sheep-raising in such a pastureless country as the Delta.