“Fodder crops such as birseem and vetches (gilban) when well watered are satisfactory.
“If the land is not well tilled, manured and looked after, wheat will require 6 waterings and barley 4 waterings.
“If water can be obtained in the Sudan, the agricultural problem is very easy.”
I cannot do better than close this chapter with this thoroughly Egyptian remark of Ibrahim Effendi Fehmy.
CHAPTER V.
The Oases and the Geology of the Nile valley,
by Mr. H. J. L. Beadnell, F. G. S., F. R. G. S.
40. The Oases.
—The chief oases[6] of the Libyan desert—Dakhla, Kharga, Baharia and Farafra,—occupy extensive depressions cut down through the horizontal Eocene strata[7] to the underlying saddle of Cretaceous rocks; some of the more porous beds of the latter are water-bearing and from them, either through natural passages or through artificial borings, the water rises to the surface, often under considerable pressure. The floor level varies considerably but the cultivated lands in general lie between 70 and 115 metres above sea level.
[6] See Geological Survey reports, P.W.M., Cairo.
[7] With the exception that Dakhla is almost entirely cut out in Cretaceous strata.