Agriculture -- Egypt; Egypt -- Description and travel
Attached to the building above referred to were well-erected ranges of
cattle-sheds, not occupied for fattening purposes, but for the culture
of the farm, this culture being carried on not by horses, but by oxen--
buffaloes and ordinary bullocks--which are regularly used, as at one
time in Old England, yoked to the plough, harrow, or roller, and on some
of the high grounds which are let by his Highness, for turning the
water-wheels, though on the model farms steam power only is used for the
purposes of irrigation.
These sheds are built in the same fashion as the granary, a noteworthy
point in connection with the big, sleek, well-fed occupants being that
instead of, as in English fashion, standing in one long row with their
backs to the visitor, they are ranged in ranks, fifty-six in all,
sideways to the spectator, facing so many feeding troughs, and each
provided with its tethering halter and a sliding iron ring attached to
an iron bar, giving freedom to each animal to stand or lie down at its
pleasure without any risk of self-inflicted injury.
As a specimen of the model-farm-like erection of these buildings, it may
be stated that the feeding troughs are of solid masonry, made impervious
and clean by an inner lining of zinc. No partitions are used to
separate these draught cattle, but by the arrangement of the haltering
they can be kept at such a distance that no two could come into contact.
Everything was beautifully clean, the great animals being amply
supplied with dry earth for litter, its disinfecting qualities being
admirable from a cleanly point of view, and valuable for the purposes of
the farm.
One of the principal foods for cattle upon the farm is _Tibn_, as it is
called by the Egyptians--chopped or bruised straw, made more nutritious,
according to the needs of the animal in feeding, by the addition of
beans or barley; and in the progress across the place a huge stack of
this chaff-like provender was passed, some ten feet high, but totally
unprotected from the weather by thatch. The reply to questions by the
manager was simple in the extreme, yet in itself a chapter on the
beautiful nature of the climate. The reason why the stack had no
protecting thatch was that there was no need, the rain was so trifling,
and when the wind and its habit of scattering stacks was mentioned, the
inquirer was told that it did no harm.
In passing one enclosure sheep were encountered--a class of farming, as
stated elsewhere, little affected on account of the absence of grass
downs and ordinary grazing fields; but these were in a
ealthy, flourishing state, well fleeced, with a fine white
semi-transparent-looking wool, indicating relationship to the Angora
breed, specimens of the latter being seen later on in fold.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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