266
THE BRITISH EMPIRE: — EGYPT
the number of 20,463. At the end of the year this garrison was in process of reduction.
Production and Industry.
The cultivable area of Egypt proper was reckoned in 1919 at 7,691,793 feddans (1 feddan = l "038 acre), and of this 2,829,215 were uncultivated for want of reclamation. The land-tax has been readjusted, the old distinction between Kharagi and Ushuri tax has disappeared, and the taxes on land range from 2 piastres (1 piastre = 2\d.) to 164 piastres per feddan according to the rental value. The corvie, or forced labour, has been abolished, but the inhabitants are still called out to guard or repair the Nile banks in flood time, and are also liable in any sudden emergency; in 1913 none were called out; in 1914, 21,600; in 1916, 113,000. The agricultural population (Fellahin) forms about 62 per cent, of the whole. A large proportion of them are small landholders with under 51 feddans, while others, almost or altogether landless, are labourers, the relation between the employers and the employed being mostly hereditary. The following table shows, for 1919, the number of landholders and the distribution of the land between foreigners and natives : —
Extent of
Foreigners
Natives
Total of area
Total of Landowners
holding
in feddans
Area in feddans
Land- owners
Area in feddans
Land- owners
Feddans
Per- centage
Land- owners
Per- centage
Uptol From 1-5 „ 5-10 ., 10-20 „ 20-30 „ 30-50 Over 50
1,163 4,738 5,540 8,672 8,198 15,812 583,463
2,('38 1,M)1 751 605 328 398 1,488
489,918 1,050,887 533,542 512,058 272,260 329,777 1,695,231
1,158,681 494,791 77,494 37,323 11,228 8,529 11,192
491,081 1,055,625 539, OS 2 620,730 280,458 345,589 2,278,694
8-9 19-2 9-8 9-4 5-1 6-3 413
1,160,719 496,592 78,245 37,928 11,556 8,927 12,680
64-3 27-5 4-3 2-1 0-6 0-5 0-7
Total .
627,586
7,409
4,8S3,673
1,799,238
5,511,259
100
1,806,047
100-0
The Egyptian agricultural year includes three seasons or crops. The leading winter crops, sown in November and harvested in May and June, are cereal produce of all kinds ; the principal summer crops, sown in March and harvested in October and November, are cotton, sugar, and rice ; the autumn crops, sown in July and gathered in September and October, are rice, maize, millet, and vegetables generally. In Fayum and Lower Egypt, where perennial irrigation is effected by means of a network of canals tapping the Nile and traversing the Delta in every direction, the chief crops are cotton, rice, Indian corn, wheat, barley, clover, cucumber ; in Upper Egypt, south of Deirut, where the basin system of irrigation, i.e. submersion at high Nile, is generally adhered to, cereals aud vegetables are produced ; north of Deirut the same conditions prevail as in Lower Egypt, except that no rice is grown. Where there is perennial irrigation, two or three crops are secured annually.
Extensive reservoir works, consisting of a dam at Aswan, a barrage at Esna, a barrage at Asydt, and a barrage at Zifta, have been com- pleted. The original storage capacity of the reservoir was 1,065,000,000 cubic metres. The level of the dam has been raised by 6 metres and the capacity of the reservoir increased to 2,423,000,000 cubic metres. The barrage at Ksna ensures adequate irrigation to a large area of basin land even in a year of low Nile. North of Deirut an area of approximately half a
