Lectures on the History of Agriculture and Rural Economics (Classic Reprint). This item is unavailable.Lectures on the History of Agriculture and Rural Economics (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Lectures on the History of Agriculture and Rural Economics

Within Egypt proper there is an area of about square miles or a little more than Ohio and Illinois combined. In 1887 it contained a population of 5 1-2 million people, and its principal export was cotton. This valley is watered by the Nile, which rises in the lakes Victoria and Alberta. The former con tains an area of square miles, - almost exactly that of the state of Ohio, and is situated 1° 15' south of the equator. The Nile empties into the Mediterranean sea at Rosetta 'and Dami etta at 310 35'north. The Nile is said to traverse 4100 miles in going this distance, as compared with the Mississippi, which traverses 3000 miles. As the crows fly, the distance from Vic toria N yanza to the Mediterranean is 2000 miles, while from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico is about 1300 miles. The val ley of the Nile, however, is not ancient Egypt. The tillable area of Egypt was only about square milesi'or about the size of Belgium and is divided into two portions, the delta and the valley proper. The delta is a triangular area, whose distance between the mouth at Rosetta and Damietta is 120 miles, and whose distance from the branch of the river at Cairo to the sea is about 90 miles, the whole area being estimated at about square miles. This was probably largely a grazing district. The valley extends from Cairo southward about 520 miles to the last of the ten cataracts near which is the town of Assuan, the ancient Syene. The average width of tillable soil on either side does not exceed two miles. This area occupies about square miles and is generally recognized as the seat of the an cient civilization.

One of the minor districts of Egypt is the Fayoom. This inter esting district contains Lake Moeris, which is a natural basin into which the water of the Nile has been fed by a canal eight miles long, and various sub-canals water this district, thus bringing into use some square miles of territory. This is one of the most stupendous works from an agricultural stand point, that has ever been performed in Egypt, and was supposed to have been done in its early history.

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