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After the 3,000,000 acres that will be first reclaimed have been sold and settled, the area available for agriculture can be doubled by the expenditure of $15,000,000 additional, and ultimately the gain would be 6,000,000 acres capable of producing annually, according to his estimates, 2,000,000 tons of wheat, 4,000,000 hundred-weight of cotton and fabulous quantities of other exportable products, in addition to whatever food will be necessary to support a population of a million people.

In addition to the agricultural products, he promises pasturage for millions of sheep and goats and hundreds of thousands of cattle in the delta, and he would build a railway from Bagdad to Damascus with branches here and there to tap the harvest fields. The total length of this road would be about five hundred and fifty miles and, according to his estimates, it could be constructed for between ten and eleven million dollars.

The high price of cotton has caused the manufacturers of Manchester and other mill districts of England to seek new sources of supply. The attempts to extend the volume of the products of Egypt have not been successful, notwithstanding the investment of $25,000,000 in irrigation plants. The trouble is chiefly the lack of labour, and the indifference and indolence of the fellahs or peasant farmers in the valley of the Nile. Nor can the product of Egypt be increased to any considerable degree without the importation of labour. Several planters have tried American negroes but they wilt under the climate of Egypt and soon acquire the habits of the peasants around them.