CORN IN EGYPT

Waikato Times, Volume 122, Issue 20511, 30 May 1938, Page 19

CORN IN EGYPT

TIME AND HARVEST SICKLE AND SCYTHE. j Spring is a season of rapid growth in the fertile Delta lands of Egypt, says Colonel C. E. Hughes, Australian Trade Commissioner in Egypt. The fresh corn and vegetable plot, the acres of maize, the cotton plantations all combine in a short month to make the land a beautiful pattern of green. Once these lands, “the granary of the Ancient World,” waved with corn for Imperial Rome. Now cotton is the staple item of Egypt’s trade, and grain has taken second place. The Fellah Displaced The vast cotton acreages, however, do not in many cases belong to the man who tills the soil—the fellah. Large commercial interests have stepped in. Moreover, the crop is hedged about by Government control and scientific supervision practically from the day of planting until its shipment in hales from Alexandria to the world’s markets. The fellaheen as individuals cannot 'associate themselves with these alien I methods. They look forward rather to the grain harvest. Every fellah of I the Delta’s thousands is vitally interI est-ed in his small plot of grain, its sowing, irrigation, harvesting and winnowing. The grain, wheat, barley or rye ripens much earlier than the maize. By April it is a pale yellow, rapidly darkening, and by May the earliest crop is ready for the sickle or scythe. The aspect of the land has changed. Mile after mile the fields are golden, their flatness broken only bv the taller millet or maize, which is still green and fresh. In every field the labourers are busy, with cotton “galabiers” of butcher blue or white colour tucked up to their waists. Not only the men. but the black-robed women work, and brightlyclad children scurry here and there fetching and carrying. Nearly everywhere the pointed sickle is still in use —an exact counterpart of the scene in the old paintings. Reaping at Night Reaping is generally done at night, since tlie hot sunshine loosens tlie grain in the ear, and much of it would be lost .if gathered during tlie* day. The rye. weak on its straw, lies close to the ground, a tangled mass, and the sickle or scythe slowly reaps its way among the matted stalks. The grain is tied into small sheaves N\hieh the children hug as they s bigger toward the waiting donkey op camel. vJiich is leaded up until the animal looks like a wander dm slack jtsdf. I ’resell fly. from all directions. Mockim-' •he Acid 1 • at!i> as lh«y |,.,ss aloiur. tliev make I heir \\a\ Inward fhe fhresli’n"Moor. Thr.e | lire shut- doors—an acre two of I*'\ c | beaten earth—are somewhere close to Hie village. The

corn of 20 men is spread in 20 wide circles, within each circle of sheaves in turn a heavy sledge lurches round and roiuncl drawn by a pair of plodding buffaloes or oxen. This sledge (or “norag”) is strongly built of timber J and has a seat on which two or three I may sit. It is curved and painted very much li-kc the sledges seen in pictures. ! With an old man or a heavy stone as i ballast, and with dozens of discs of ! steel or flints underneath let into the | woodwork it is drawn over the sheaves, j This rolling or drawing over the j sheaves slowly reduces straw, husks j and ears to the appearance of chaff, I until finally only a conical hill of grain ; and chaff is left. i At night-time the family arrive and press small thanksgiving loaves in the newly-threshed grain, crowning the heap with a device of plaited straw in which are set the choicest ears of unthreshed grain. This device is the bride of the corn. Other brides are hung about the home, as they have been hung for thousands of years, to ensure the success of the next crop. | To-day, the threshing—to-morrow, the winnowing. With wooden shovels they toss the whole heaps time and time again high in the air, making a golden haze against the setting sun. For this is ari evening task; no matter how still and hot the clay may be, the northerly wind comes regularly each evening. The grain falls hack on the heap and the husks and the chaff go down the wind, settling in a long, low ridge. The Pay-out All through .Tunc and .Tilly, the threshing floor is busy. As each villager secures his crop, he pays out in kind to poorer relatives and other helpers. The ferryman who through the year has carried man and beast over tlie canals as required, has an annual payment in grain from each farmer. The village barber has his meed, and the muezzin who calls the faithful to prayer from the minaret of the village mosque receives his tithe. The result of his own harvest the fellah carries to the house-roof granary which stands like a huge beehive I of clay with a hole at the top by which ! it is Ailed, and at the base, a small * opening from which the grain can be scratched out as needed. Those are the silos of Egypt which have stood since the days of Joseph. j