The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-01-18
COTTON GROWERS IN EGYPT.
Development of That Country by I'm
proved Irrigation Systems.

Iaklng Egypt as whole, sugar cane
is decreasing, though when the Assouan
dam was planned as much confidence
was felt in the increase of cane as in
that OF cotton. In the southern
provinces it may hold it's own for
time, but in Middle Egypt the change
from cane to cotton has been very
marked. While wise government policy
dictates rotation of crops in the largest
possible degree, nevertheless ineXorable
economic tendencies cannot be diverted
The unmistakable tendency is against
the expansion and even the continuance
on the present scale of the sugar in
dustry in which large sums have been
lost. Egypt cannot compete with the
more favored tropical countries in the
production of cane sugar for export,
nor with France, Austria and Germany
in furnishing the beet root product
some of which she herself imports
We may conclude that in cotton Egypt
has a permanent world market and for
that reason this staple will be cultivat-
ed in preference to other crops. The
change from the time of Joseph and his
captive brethren to the epoch of Lord
Cromer and the British pro-cOnsuls is
one from corn to cotton. 1t is sensible
change, because it eliminates COMPETE
ton in the crop grown for marketing.
Its soundnesS was perceived by the Me-
hemet Ali in the first quarter of the
nineteenth century, when he called in
the French engineers and inaugurated
the extravagant but splendid system
of irrigation which, in spite of prodigal-
fty, was justified by results. Other
countries could produce foodstuffs; in
selling grain Egypt sold not so much
to them, as in competition with them.
In marketing cotton she has the whole
world as a customer, including the
United States, which needs this product
ND in a racant took
S., 900, 900 worth of 1t.
But the prediction of Sir Samuel
Baker, that the transformation of the
Libyan and Nubian deserts into cotton
fields would render Great Britain indie
pendent of the United States, shows DO
sign of coming true. Experiments in
growing cotton from Egyptian seed are
constantly making in various parts of
the world but even with semisatisfac-
tory results which up to this period
have been obtained only on a limited
scale, the increasing demand for cotton
fabrics assures the continued su
premacy of the Egyptian long staple.
What this crop means to Egypt we can
better appreciate when we know that
though the present wheat and Indian
corn areas are only 20 to % per cent
lower, respectively, than cotton, be-
tween 81 and So per cent of her total
exports are cotton and cotton seed.
and this impressive fact further i'm
presses us when we review the Stats
tics and find that the foreign trade in
1907 was double what it was in 1897.
If the experiments in growing Egypt
ian cotton in India should succeed. the
law of compensation between countries
and their peoples might be said to be
working, though the 3o0000,0o0 natives
of India are not in position quite like
that of the 11.o0o,0 900 inhabitants OF
Egypt. 1t was the experience which
the British engineers obtained in their
struggles with the rivers of the Him
alayas that helped them to solve the
ages-old problem of the Nile. Though
the irrigation systems of India can nor
be traced back to the dim fringes of
human history, as in Egypt, in the for
mer country there are ruins of irriga-
ton works of remote centuries. The
Gauges and the Indus were the floods Of
life. and the droughts of death to the
ancients, as to the NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
Magazine.