Imperial Valley press., 1909-02-20

The writer recalls large areas in | Imperial Valley where nitrate clay is found, so rich that 1t Will doubtless some day be brought to the orange | groves of Southern California by train loads.
 This mixture in the Nile Valley is clay and nitrate of soda, the richest being found on the surface Drainage, an sll-important problem is given ! great attention by the Egyptian gov. ernment In soil the Nile Valley is | very like Imperial Valley, all of allu- vial origin, and, generally speaking, | of a clayey mixture, differing only in | the density of the clay The heavy ' clay, though difficult to work. yields ] good crops of cotton. The danger is saturation and infiltration. This class of soil is always in danger of receiv- ing a greater quantity of water than is necessary. which sours the land; if plowed when more or less wet, it Is lumpy, or in brick-like condition quite unfit for germination of seeds. Labor and Land Values.
 Labor is plentiful in Egypt. and ! from an European point of view. is ef. | ficieut. Crude tools and crude meth l ods are in vogue, and the hoe is the "fellah's" stock in trade In 1904 labor was obtainable at 15 cents a day His remuneration is not always in money, he may be engaged under one of the many basis of contract, re. ceivlng a certain area of land for a year in lieu of part of his wage, or he may receive a certain share of the crop.
 The value of the land is almost in- credible, the values having increased enormously during recent years. The best land in the Nile Delta cannot be purchased for less than $500 to $500 an acre, while there are many cases where as much as $500 have been paid for land possessing no value, present or prospective, except from an agri- 1 cultural point of view
 Good acreage land costs from $300 to $400 an acre, while it Y ould be diff ficult to find any land under a state of cultivation which could be pur- chased for less than $50 per acre Land returns from 6 to per cent up on above valuations, the sheet-anchor i being the cotton crop.
 
 ute the work animals of Egypt. $100 | being the price of an average work ! ing bullock
 [ Rotating Crops.
 The winter crops, grown from No vember to March, are wheat, barley, ! beans clover, etc, in lower Egypt which compares to our Yuma-Imper- ial country The summer crops are cotton, sugar cane, rice and summer sorghum. Of all the crops, cotton is most important and constitutes the great agricultural wealth of Egypt Its cultivation began in 1920, and was i greatly stimulated by the American Civil War.
 The area in cotton is not far from 1 1,750,000 acres. Glover, beans and wheat. alternate with cotton or it may i be maize, or, as we term it, "Egyp- tian corn" If cotton follows maize, i the land is plowed as soon as the maize is harvested while, if after clover, the land is left until about fortnight before cotton planting be- l gins.
 All large administrations in Egypt use steam blows; by this means land is plowed during the summer months to a depth of twelve inches. Other tools consist of the ordinary native blow, drawn by pair of bulocks. 1 This blow is an exceedinly crude af- fair. made of wood; it merely stirs the ground, does not invert the ground ] at all.
 Cotton Cultivation.
 It is an axiom of all good cotton l planters that the land should be plowed early and left exposed to the weather for some time. In rainless region there is nothing to fear from the teaching effects of rain, while it is universally accepted that cotton sown on such land germinates better and grows more regularly. The land thus plowed is made into ridges Gas we would term it, "back-furrowed, which I observed is the universal prac- tice in China and Japan All the inn menSe fields of ManchIIria were hack