Agriculture -- Egypt; Egypt -- Description and travel
There is every probability of a small capitalist, one who might begin
with almost nothing besides so much land and a sufficiency to tide
himself over the first few months, making a fair success by the
establishing of a poultry farm. In England we are favoured every year
with reports of the trials that have been made in this branch of
farming; and as a rule it seems that bad weather, the cold, and the cost
of keeping, run away with most of the profits. Indeed, the writer's
experience points to the fact that few as yet have made a satisfactory
living by keeping fowls in this rainy island, while up to the present
day our supplies are kept up by the chickens and eggs taken into market
from ordinary farms, or collected by hucksters from the cottages over
wide districts.
This applies as much to France as to England, for we are indebted to the
former country for millions of the eggs with which the metropolis is
supplied.
In Egypt, where there is plenty of room and abundant sunshine, fowls
might be much improved by the choice of suitable kinds, while some
management would be required as to the means of feeding, though one
suggestion may be made that, if adopted, ought to prove of great
assistance to the fowl and egg farmer.
There is one peculiarity in the growing of grain in Egypt, and this is
noticeable in the harvesting, the heat of the sun being so great that
the corn of various kinds ripens with such rapidity that if much of it
be not cut down and carried in the comparative coolness of the night
much of it is shed in the fields and is wasted. Here is a great
opportunity for the poultry farmer, or the farmer who merely keeps a few
fowls in connection with his general cultivation; for at such times, in
a country where double crops prolong the harvest, great numbers of
poultry in kinds would be self-feeding, and far superior in quality to
many that are brought into the Cairene and Alexandrian markets.
Still, at the present time the occupation has been much improved, for
not only are the native markets supplied, but exportation of eggs is on
the increase. Far off as Egypt may be, the metropolis is to some extent
supplied with its produce, but to nothing like the extent that should be
the case, for the London egg merchants will not buy "mummies," which is
the cant term for Egyptian eggs, save for about two months in the year,
when the European supplies are scarce.
This fact--one which is well worthy the attention of poultry farming
aspirants--is entirely the fault of the Egyptian grower, for the London
merchants' complaint is perfectly justifiable. It is this--that the
Egyptian eggs are exceedingly small, and so badly packed for transit by
those who seem thoroughly ignorant of the proverbial fact that "eggs are
eggs," that the breakage is enormous, while the entire loss falls on the
agents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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