Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-08-10

h Alexandria They extend for a mile or
l. So up and down the Mahmudiyeh canal.
which joins this city to the Nile. and
are fanked on the other side by rail-
roads filled with cotton trains from
revery part of Egypt These wharves
lie under the shadow of Pompey's Pill
lar, and they extend all along the canal
almost to the harbor. Upon them are great
warehouses filed with bales and bags. There
rare cotton presses nearby. and in the city
itself is a great cotton exchange where the
IpeopIe buy and sell, just as they do at
liverpool, from the samples of lint which
uSepresent the bales brought in from the
plantations.
- Indeed cotton is as big factor here as
lit Is in New Orleans and the banks of this
canal make one think of the great cotton
tmarket of that city. The warehouses are
of vast extent, and the road between them
and this waterway is covered with bales OF
4int and great bags of cotton seed. Skull
capped. blue-gowned Egyptians sit high
upon the bales on long-bedded wagons
shauled by mules other Egyptians are UNI
hoading the cars and boats and others
are carrying the cotton to the ware
their backs. and now and then a man may
be seen carrying bag OF loose cotton
this head. The cotton seed is taken from
. the boats in the same way seed TO the
amount of 800 pounds often forming load
I for one man.
/ harbor 10 see the cotton steamers They
were taking on cargoes for Great Britain,
Russia. France. Germany and the United
States. Cotton forms three-fourths OF the
exports of this country, and something IKE
$T0o.0oo worth OF it is annually shipped
/ to the United States. This is so notwith-
standing we raise more than two-thirds of
all the cotton OF the world. The total
product in 1905 was almost 100000 bales,
of which we raised over 100000 Egypt
then produced a little less than 100000.
and its product brought more per bale by
I far than ours. There Is always big de-
mand for Egyptian cotton. 1t is worth
more, on the average than that OF any
' other country. and il is, in fact, the chief
money maker OF the Nile valley,
Cotton Is King.
Cotton is the great white pl araoh which
the Egyptians worship. He has the ma
Jority of the Nile farmers in his employ
and he pays them royalty. He has rolled
UP a wave of prosperity which is now en-
gulfng the Nile valley from the Mediter-
ranean to the cataraets. and the prospects |
that he will make his country grow |
richer from year 10 year.
Cotton Is now pouring about SSOoDOOO
OF new. clean money into the laps of the
Egyptians every twelve months, and this
means uu average of about $40 per family. |
In addition. about SlOU0GO0 are an
nualiy realized from the sale OF cotton
seed and cotton cake. 50 that every man.
woman and child in the valley of the Nile
has. on tGe average, 81 worth Of new
money rom this crop alone.
Not only this. bat the cotton yield is
Steadily increasing and. with the new ir-
rlgaton works now under way, II will |
soon he greater than ever. From 1895 to
1900 its average annual value was only
SfOcplbA' After the ASSOuan dam was
completed II Jumped 10 S7OoODO1O and
IL is now, as have said. over SsoOO0O 900
In the past few months the British gov
eminent has decided to raise that dam
This will almost double the amount of wa
ter which can be used for the cotton crop |
and that means more cotton and more 7
money. Lord Cromcr the British governor
general SAYS that the greater part OF up
per ana lower Egypt can he made to grow
eventually cover more than 100000 acres.
II 20 per cent Of this is annually put |
into cotton, at the present average yield of
40 pounds per acre, il viii produce some
thing like 2UOpC0 bales per annum. or
one-nintH As much as the present cotton |
crop CT the world. Sir William Garstin. !
one Of tts greatest irrigation engineers of
modern times and the man who had much
TO do in building the Assouan dam says
that 3Wn,GOj bales is one Of the pnssibili-
tise OF EgSrts future. but that II will be
ten OF fifteen years before the crop reaches
that amount In addition to this there
may b" further increase by putting water
into some Of the Gases which lie in the
VALLEY OF the Nile outside th. river hat
tom. and also by draining the great lakes
about Alexandria and in other PARTS OF
the lower delta.
Egypt's Cotton Crop. l.
As II Is now. Egypt is fast taking a high
place among the cotton countries o. the
world. The United States stands first. She ,