The sugar culture is in the hands of the Khedive, and about two hundred and fifty thousand acres of land are devoted to it, chiefly on the west bank of the Nile between Cairo and Sioot. There are more mills than are really needed for the amount of sugar made, and there is a large quantity of machinery which has never been put up, but lies neglected and rusting on the banks of the river. There is a system of railways for bringing the cane to the mills, and connected with the line of railway from Cairo up the Nile. The labor on the sugar estates is very poorly paid, and more frequently is not paid at all. The laborers are gathered from the villages along the river, and compelled to work three months on the sugar estates when they should be cultivating their own fields at home. Frank and Fred could not understand this mode of conducting business till the Doctor explained it to them after their return to the steamer. "You observed," said the Doctor, "that the laborers included both sexes, and all ages from five years old to fifty or sixty." "Yes," answered one of the youths; "and I saw that they did not take much interest in their work, and appeared to be half starved." "You will not be surprised at it," replied Doctor Bronson, "when I tell you they are never paid in money, with the exception of the chiefs of gangs, and the men in charge of the machinery. "They receive a daily allowance of bread; it is not such bread as we are accustomed to, but simply coarsely ground wheat flour, containing a liberal proportion of mud and chopped straw, and very carelessly baked. With so bad a quality you might suppose the quantity would be abundant, but it is not; a laborer can devour his day's allowance at a single meal, and frequently it is not enough to satisfy his hunger." "But is that all they get?" one of the boys asked. "That is frequently all they get," was the reply. "True, they are promised something more, but they do not often receive it. "According to an official report on the subject," the Doctor continued, "the wages of hands in the factories are fixed at fifteen cents a day for a man, and eight cents for a boy, while those of the field hands are eight cents for a man, and five for a boy. And when they are paid at all it is invariably in _kind_--that is, in grain, sugar, or molasses, at a high price--and not in money. It is difficult for them to sell these articles, and the best they can do is to eat them, or perhaps barter them off for something more desirable. Not one laborer in twenty has anything to show for his work on the sugar estates or in the factories except his thin cheeks, and the bones half protruding from his skin." "It is no wonder," said Fred, "that they begged so hard for backsheesh, and that they seemed, unlike the Arabs of Cairo, to be very grateful when we gave them some small coins."