The Barre daily times. (Barre, Vt.) 1897-1959, 1909-06-30
HARvEsr TIME m EGYPT.
Interesting Sights After the Tourist
Season.

interesting olShts Atlei the AvuAAsb
Season.
Visitors to Egypt who have the cour-
age 70 linger a few months after the
regular tourist season has passed. viii
be rewarded BY many interesting sights
which are utterly foreign to those who
fly at the first breath Of tropie heat, no
matter how familiar they may be with
other phases Of life along the Nile 1t
il in the early summer months, when the
sun begins 70 warm UP and 70 send the
Thermometer higher and higher. that the
Egyptian farmer brings out his ancient
reaping implements, which have the ap-
pearanee Of having done service IN the
time Of Rameses, bitches up the family
dairy, and. with his flock Of little brown
babies and possibly a wife or two, HES TO
the fields June and July are two al toe
busiest Of harvest months.
Egypt Is essentially an agricultural
country and is prosperity is largely de-
pendent on the success Of the farmer,
who forms over 80 per cent. Of the popu.
lation The prosperity Of the farmer is
almost entirely dependent on the water
supply; so. in endeavoring to regulate
the rise Of the Nile to make it uniform
each year, and to provide for the proper
distribution Of the water, the Egyptian
government IS working along scientific
lines to insure the growth Of the crops
and to bring back to Egypt something Of
its former afiluence.
The Weather land owners whose sons
have attended the Tewfkieh college Of
agriculture have equipped their farms
with the latest machinery procurable
but the majority Of the fellaheen cling
to methods pursued by their fathers. and
with which they are able to cope in any
emergency The native farmer may APP
prove Of the modern tools, but he is slow
to adopt them, not only because Of their
almost prohibitive cost, but also because
when they are once acquired they are
too difficult to keep in order. When q
part of a native pillow or a thresher
breaks Or wears out, he knows exactly
how to 20 about to repair 1T; but when
part, or even a small bolt. in steam
pillow or thresher breaks OF is missing,
he IS utterly at a loss. There are weeks
and weeks Of delay while the necessary
articles are being brought up the river
from Cairo, and with them comes, at
great expense, an expert workman who
knows how to adjust them. for the ma
tive farmer is nothing of a mechanic.
In the meantime the grain waits, unless
the farmer owns some OF the primitive
machinery One OF the curious sights
in the Egytian harvest season is mod.
ern threshing machine noisily working
in a field adjoining that in which ma
tive thresher Is treading out the grain
The brown-skinned tlller of the soil,
clad in his flowing robes Of white or the
fayorite dull blue and yellow combina-
ton, sitting on the high sea Of the crude
threshcr, which is dragged over the fields
by yoke Of patient camels OF perhaps
camel and donkey or a couple of buff
falo cows, appears to the stranger who
sees this for the first time like the prin-
eipal actor in scene worked out by an
ingenious mind for stage effect The
native plow Of Egypt is simply the
forlSed portion Of a tree, or two pieces
Joined together and smoothed off "a
primitive continuance which may still be
seen in use BY Cuban farmers. The
thresher is a sledgelike affair fitted with
round erushers Of wood or iran and
weighted down from the top The grain
is crushed into the ground, and when
gathered up il is mixed with humps of
mud. but it is said that never a kernel
Of It is lost or wasted Herbert Quimby
il Leslie's Weekly,