Agriculture -- Egypt; Egypt -- Description and travel
Asparagus is decidedly one of the best-paying crops in Egypt, and
naturally always in great demand by the Europeans who visit or pass
through the country in ever-increasing numbers. The cultivation is the
same good old-fashioned style practised in England, the beds being well
prepared and generously treated with stimulants. All that is required
to secure a fine crop is proper attention under skilled direction, for
there are no drawbacks from frost, the grower never finding the sturdy
greenish purple shoots of yesterday drooping over and destroyed by the
morning's frost.
Well treated, the beds will remain good for from ten to fifteen years, a
very modest computation this, for if well-managed and not cut too hard,
a good asparagus plantation ought to remain prosperous for twenty or
thirty years. As the result of his generous treatment in the way of
stimulants, the grower may expect to receive wholesale from two
shillings to five shillings per hundred shoots, according to their size.
That easily-cultivated wholesome vegetable, spinach, is largely grown
from September till January; while now may be added, most extensively
raised, a vegetable new to Occidental eyes, in company with three more
which have long periods of growth, well fitting one to succeed the
other.
The first is a small-flowered mallow, whose period is from September to
October--it is much relished by the poorer Egyptians as a cooked
vegetable resembling spinach; purslane is another very easily-grown
plant, whose period is from March to September; Jews' mallow, too, is a
vegetable greatly esteemed by the natives. This is cultivated, and also
found growing wild in the fields. It is much in demand as a summer
vegetable. Okra is another dish held in high estimation; it is not
difficult to grow, and forms a good paying crop.
To return to the familiar vegetables of Western gardens, we have a great
favourite in the shape of the haricot bean. This grows exceedingly well
in Egypt, on condition of its being well supplied with water, while the
rapidity of its maturing is marvellous, showing, as it does, the beauty
of the Egyptian climate and the power of the sun, for it is fit to pick
thirty days after sowing, and the land ready for another crop, a fact
which seems almost incredible.
The next on the list of profitable vegetables is the ordinary broad
bean, but this is not extensively grown, as it is only consumed by the
upper class natives, the poorer people preferring the ordinary horse
bean, which is grown as a winter crop. These beans are a very common
article of food, and are bought by the peasantry, ready boiled, in most
public places. They are also largely employed as provender for the
working cattle. The roots of an arum and of the lotus, too, are largely
consumed, and no wonder in the case of the latter in such a dreamy land;
but the effects are not quite the same as the former Laureate described.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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