The cultivation carried on under these conditions
varies considerably with the different districts, but
everywhere, except on the Daira farms and on some of

* Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians, ii., p. 4 — 5. Ttere is also a variation of
the shadoof called chutweh, which is worked by two men with four cords,
but the more common form of the machine is that described above. The
latest official return reports the total number of sakJcias at 30,084, that of
sTiadoofs at 70,058, of tahoots at 6,936, and of steam pumps at 476, engaging
the labour of more than 60,000 animals and 150,000 men for, on an average,
about 180 days in the year.
COTTON CULTURE. 183

those belonging to tlie riclier Pashas, its methods are
still as rude as when Joseph was moufettish. The
ploughs, hoes, clod-crushing, threshing, winnowing, and
other implements may, in fact, aU be found in sculptured
or painted counterpart on scores of tomb and temple
walls anywhere between Beni-hassan and Edfou. Vainly
have Reading and Ipswich tried to iutroduce into general
use the improved tools of modern husbandry : the Khe-
dive' s and some of the larger private estates have adopted
their steam ploughs, patent reapiug-machines, and other
novelties, but the peasant farmer will have none of them
at any price Messrs. Howard or Ransome have yet been
able to quote. In fact, as has been well said, " the earth
is tickled with a hoe and laughs with a harvest,'.' for over
three-fourths of the country the soil is merely scratched
with the crooked stick which here, as generally through-
out the East, does duty as a plough.
