Show aa A ML d 4 Y A R a s ill y ix M Y 1 Y freight barges on the nile prepared by the national society waR hington D C in a bisp dispute with england EGYPT has been once more atthe at the focus of world attention as she has been many times in tile the sixty centuries that eliat make up alost known history altory americans who visit egypt t know the country chiefly from faoro the city stand bland point they see beo through tile the cy eyes ot of the extremely polite dragoman who escorts them about th the e streets of C cairo alro or alexandria the man who r sweats in the sun sau on his tiny tidy farm Is oil an entirely different creature lib sea to of living Is of the meanest the peas peasant ant population huddle in villages within the confines of lour fo ur mud mua walls homes witte which li literally do not furnish them with a root ov over er their heads wretched cabins lincir improvised out of nile mud adud windowless a as s well as r roofless oo fless no modern pots a and nd pans none of 0 tile the contrivances i a ns and shifts of modern times that go toward rendering life easy and comfortable abl c and which enable the forem fore rann nn of a section gang on nn an american railroad to be better warmed lighted and serve served d with news than was queen elizabeth of england we ve sire are accustomed to think of egypt in terms of s symbols the sphinx osiris the pyramids the country has been a happy hunting ground for the and their renel turn us back through the abysms of time to the contemplation of mysterious figures of the past whether a sacred sacra bull or king tutankhamen ankli ank hamen amen A country of wonders no doubt but tho the wonder jf of wonders is not tile the i ancient relies relics Q dug from the ilie earth nor tho the mighty works ot of mens hands handa erected upon its surface but the ithe soil itself that longish strip of green fringing the river riva nile for the better part par toft of one thousand miles nature has haq dealt in tAg niggardly gardly fash ton ion with the land of I 1 egypt jupt the country posses possesses sos no copper ho no iron ore no forests S td no precious minerals and no good steam coal it Is fairly exact to remark that the country lacks nil all the prime prerequisites of modern industrialism dus agriculture Is virti rilly the sule source of national wealth rut hut even in tills this field the couii country try is extremely limited only a strip of habitable land egypt la Is practically rainless and only one twenty fifth of the land Is capable of cultivation these fertile re regions alons glons are sandwiched in between the arabian and libyan deserts while the area of not including the sudan Is square miles or about eight times the ize elze of bf the state of pen renn 1 sylvanin only a little more than square miles are capable of cultivation over this relatively email strip of habitable land the th population swarms gome sonie 1100 to td the square mile whereas the population of Belg hirn turp the dens dena eat in europe Is to the square tulle mile Y yet et despite nil tills egypt Is probably the lie most perfect and extensive far aien laboratory that the world ans hn yet seen from en cu agricultural standpoint the country presents it a spectacle of three uniformities ties cl I 1 mate soil moisture except for thi the region near the north coast the country As la rain lers and frosts are unknown the soil Is the same formed by the sediment fr from om nile water now nov uniformity la Is precisely the thing which the Amerl american gp fanner lacks the main factor in crop yields Is the weather 4 arid and the weather Is always the unknown qUint quantity ity the egyptian tolvis his farming equation by knowing the value of it before he be starts with the american farmer fanner agriculture la 13 more or less bof a gamble with rin nature ture whereas the n egyptian atlan farmer bets on i a certainty farming therefore in egypt comedic comes nearer to being an exact science than in any other important country in the world where man surpassed nature in ordinary speech there Is 13 always a 11 tendency to personify nature to observe that nature caeg g this or that or acco according to somo some well ordered I 1 plan or design while the thought la noff extinct wo vc can with some measure of truth speak of natures intentions about this planet lanct and tile the life which nourishes i upon its surface for example we may observe with truth ruth that nature never intended egypt a comparativo y sterile and drought biset country to support from froin its soil its present lation of nearly people the ingenuity of amfin roan however tins lias contrived by art to supplement the lie gifts of nature mature ordained that tle the nile should thorald overflow once a year and flood the agricultural plains of its ha valley bestowing at once the twin gifts 0 i moisture and fertility fertil lt y when W en the flood has passed and tho the water gatei has subsided the farmer sows bows hla his seed and grows his annual crop tra and historically his torlea atas it Is elther cither a feast or akamine in egypt for foi a brief season the abounding flood to be ba succeeded for the balance of the year by blazing suns and killing droughts tile the ingenuity of man has harnessed the great river by holding back the flood of waters baiers during tho the freshet season seas and doling out these huson banded supplies during tho lean months of tile the year through this device streams of living water can be carried every month of tile the yar year to the roots of growing plants the great stone dam at aswan Is in reality the keystone L of modern egypt this huge rampart of masonry which retains a 00 toot foot head ot of water weighing tons Is pierced cedat at its foot by ISO sluice gates these gates kept wide open hen the annual flood Is coming down late in the summer are gradually closed when the crest of the flood tins has passed by january the reservoir Is full and remains so during february and march when the supply of water begins to fall in the late spring and early summer sluices ar are e opened and stored water added to the normal discharge great barrages are thrown across the nile farther downstream these are masonry obstacles laid across the rivers course to raise the water in the stream to the level of the irrigation canals the nile barrage a few miles below cairo Is capable of raising the water level for the irrigation of the entire delta by as much as 20 feet crops cr aps ops require lots of water perennial irrigation ns as has been explained pl pla ened ined means an all year cupply ot water to the egyptian farmer the huge volume of water required for irrigating the porous soils of tho delta under the blazing semitropical sun eun may be put at about 20 tons per acre per day vs as a minimum cotton grow ing requires about 25 tons ot of water dally while rice culture requires CO 60 tons man and his works in egypt have existed only by grace of the river there has always been be en something mysterious about the annual rise of the nile such a seemingly slight tiling thing us a reversal of the winds that sweep in summer across equatorial africa from the atlantic would pent oft off the annual flood and lay waste the richest agricultural valley in the world but while the annual floods have varied from time to time in volume they lave never lif in recorded history hoen been entirely cut oft off the apparition appareti on of the annual rise of the nile Is one of nn natures tures certitudes as well established find and as universally accepted as the rising end and setting of the sun the ancient Egy egyptians plans were continually casting about for or an explanation of the annual flood but they never succeeded in penetrating kingto to the heart of the mystery there Is no longer the slightest mys mystery mystify tiry about a subject that baffled the intelligence of the ancient world the and the blue we jile meeting at khartum khartun Khar tum form the great river nile the sou aces of the nile are therefore dual the one constant con stanL the other variable the white nile finds a basin in a series of lakes of which the greatest great e s t Is victoria in equatorial africa this lake Is sole bome 2 2500 miles by river from where the great stream de bouches into the the supply of water from the white nile Is fairly constant and Is sufficient to burnish the river nile with up proximately posS the volume of watt water r registered at mean low ebb from time immemorial however the prosperity of the country hag haade depended upon the swollen flood that overflows the banks of the river and for weeks inundates the surrounding region this blessed overflow la Is the result of other oilier nile sources which are something of a variable the blue nile and the river at bara find their basins in tile the highlands of abyssinia late in the summer this region Is drenched olih torrential ruins rains can cand c d by tle tie moun mountain thin interception ol 01 j equatorial winds which draw across the henrt heart of africa froia the he atlantic then tie lie ulue blue nile and the atbara rise some 25 23 to SO 30 feet above their ordinary lel levela 3 and some weeks inter hiter theof freshet waters appear in as annual inundation of the nile this eo called red ired water froin th abyssinian highlands cut cot only still slip ples piles moisture but also fertility to alo sells eolla of agricultural egypt sy S y pl |