Al-Ahram Weekly | Chronicles | A special on the soil

A unique supplement on agriculture in Al-Ahram created yet another landmark in the newspaper's venerable history of pioneering journalism. Professor Yunan Labib Rizk went to the roots of the issue

Just before mid-May 1935, Al-Ahram notified its readers that it would be coming out with a 64-page " Al-Ahram agricultural edition", containing "78 articles by the most eminent specialists in agrarian affairs and 100 pictures and diagrams". The special edition appeared on 15 May.

Just two months earlier, on 15 March, the newspaper had come out with a special supplement on "public health issues and methods of disease prevention and treatment, the studies for which were written by the leaders of medicine and science in Egypt". That issue had been so popular that "it was snatched off the stands within an hour or two after it appeared, after which it was impossible to obtain a copy even if one offered the newspaper vendor 10 times its price." This success encouraged the Al-Ahram management to repeat the experiment, with some minor modifications. They made the agricultural edition larger -- the medical supplement was 48 pages -- and they raised the price: the special cost a whole piastre, as opposed to the customary half a piastre for the regular Al-Ahram.

Another factor that enticed Al-Ahram to launch another special edition was the profits it made from the advertisements in the medicine and health supplement. It followed, of course, that the advertising space in the second special edition would be far greater.

The advertisements in the agricultural edition varied in form and substance. Some of the reports had a distinct promotional flavour -- it had yet to become an established journalistic practice to clearly identify such reports as promotional material. An example is the two-page article on "sodium nitrate: the perfect fertiliser for all types of soil and all types of crops". Accompanied by 21 photographs, the article relates the story of this substance from A to Z: the rich sodium nitrate deposits located near the surface of the earth in Chile, the means of extracting it and breaking it down into small pieces, the process of treating it in order to produce crystals, the 45-day journey it had to take to Alexandria where it was packaged and distributed for sale in Egypt. Pictures of wheat, corn, linen, Jerusalem artichokes, cauliflower and other crops were used to illustrate how this fertiliser produced larger yields and prevented parasites. The sodium nitrate-based fertiliser made plants grow strong and healthy, for plants, just like children, "also need nourishment and rare substances such as iodine".

In the same vein was the two-page spread on "how Egypt came to know the German calcium nitrate fertiliser". The report relates the story of a certain Thabet Thabet who began to import this brand of fertiliser in 1908. He was very successful in marketing this German product until WWI, when he encountered his first setback because of the ban on importing German goods. His supplies dwindled but nevertheless he was able to arrange for some to be brought in via Norway. Following the war, his business picked up rapidly again, with sales increasing 16 fold between 1925 and 1933.

In addition to being a model commercial agent, Thabet also provided guidance and training to peasants in how to fertilise their cotton, sugarcane and rice fields. He then founded the Economic Farmer magazine which offered tips on cultivation, reports on agricultural experiments and assorted news on agricultural commercial activities. At the time of the special agricultural edition, 23,000 copies of the magazine were being issued for free distribution at the beginning of each month.

Of course there were the ordinary straightforward advertisements such as the full-page spread proclaiming: "Increase your yield with guaranteed success". Placed by Imperial Chemical Industries, Egypt, it plugged Nitroshok fertiliser, the Oliver brand plow and Bug-Killer insecticide, the use of which would spare Egypt the billions of pounds it loses every year due to the damage caused by agricultural pests.

Mechanised farming instruments also took up considerable advertising space. The "precision-constructed, gas-operated" Marshall plowing machines were "easy to operate and always started right up". With the regular or hydraulic Hoover tractors you could plow a feddan of land for a third of a piastre. The famous Roston kerosene operated pumps were available at ranges from 10 to 1,250 horsepower. Then there was the amazing bollworm-killing Barkley machine: "It takes those worms which were alive when they bored into the grain and spits them out dead. It's cheap and it brings immediate results!"

One cannot help but to note here that not only was most of this farming machinery imported but most of its importers were foreign as well. Apart from Thabet Thabet, whose name suggests he was Egyptian, we find such firms as Angle Qalada Anton of Midland Engineering Company, Steinman and Mabardi and Company of the Egyptian Engineering Stores, George Swaithe and Sons, the Khawagas Elderson and Levi and Co and the George Rolo and Co of Alexandria. One must also deduce that the clients of these companies were not of that vast majority of the Egyptian countryside -- the small farmers whose holdings were less than five feddans. Rather, their ads were targeted at the mid-to-large landowners who could afford this machinery and who were also literate and would readily fork out the one piastre for this special edition of Al-Ahram.

Before proceeding to this exceptional issue, we should first introduce the exceptional man who was in charge of producing it. Perhaps the most salient trait one detects in Khaldoun, as the editor was called, was his sense of humour. Under the headline, "A token of friendship between the Ministry of Agriculture and farmers", he writes:

"When the Al-Ahram management set its mind on producing this agricultural edition and charged me with reviewing and assembling its material I was smitten with a bout of egotism. What will I get out of reading all these articles? I asked myself. As I took this question and followed it through to its natural conclusion, I was overwhelmed by a vague and disturbing feeling that I might just end up being a farmer!

"Now, I harbour no hatred or revulsion for farmers. How could I having grown up in the heart of rural Egypt and raised among the fellahin. But then I asked myself how I could be a fellah when I do not own a patch of this land called Egypt and do not control what takes place on so much as an inch of it. Caught in such feverish thoughts, I could not help but to recall the late Hafez Ibrahim's verse:

"What might lure the Poet of the Nile to rise from his resting place in the hope of fulfilling this wish more than a quarter of a century after he uttered it is not the idea of becoming a property holder and boasting of membership among the landed gentry, but rather the possibility to put into practice that abundant knowledge and know- how he could glean from this agricultural issue."

Khaldoun was not exaggerating. The special agricultural edition contained 78 articles which were classified in five categories: cooperation and the economy and society, general agriculture and cultivation, horticulture, fighting agricultural pests and diseases, and, finally, livestock farming, dairy products, apiculture and silk production. Khaldoun adds, "Each of these categories contains several studies on various types of crops, the optimum means of cultivating them, warding off the parasites that plague them and the connections between these types of crops and others. Each study was written by an expert in his field of specialisation, and the result is an issue of Al-Ahram that is akin to an encyclopaedia on agricultural affairs in this country."

Underscoring the significance of this occasion, Al-Ahram invited top Ministry of Agriculture officials to inaugurate the special edition. The minister, deputy minister and secretary-general graciously complied with such articles as "The general agricultural policy", "Some of the activities of the Ministry of Agriculture", and "Agriculture and Engineering: the backbone of Egyptian wealth". The articles had two features in common: they complained of limited financial resources -- Ministry of Agriculture allocations accounted for only 2.25 per cent of the national budget -- and they predicted a great future for Egyptian agriculture. Government officials, it would appear, have certain immutable attributes.

The studies under the category on "cooperation, the economy and society" were understandably dry given their heavy reliance on statistical information. The exception was "The beautification of the countryside", by the director of the Ministry of Agriculture's Guidance Department, Sadeq Rafael. In his opinion, one of the prerequisites for the beautification of rural Egypt was for landowners to reside on their farms and engage in agriculture themselves. "If they flee their fields and take refuge in the cities, no power in the world can enhance the beauty and raise the standard of living of the Egyptian village," Rafael said. If the rural gentry were determined to remain absentee landlords, the very least they could do was to provide the peasants with proper housing and fresh water. "They should know that this is both a national and religious duty," he adds. The houses should be well lit and well ventilated, and equipped with proper sanitary facilities and a separate livestock pen. Water should be drawn from artesian wells and communal ovens should be located at a safe distance from the houses.

Taking his dream further, Rafael recommended the establishment of village councils to oversee the maintenance, lighting and beautification of the village. They would plant trees along the major thoroughfares and create establishments to meet those needs that have the fellahin so infatuated with the city. "Yes, the idea of establishing places for innocent and carefree enjoyment, such as parks, libraries and movie houses will fill their craving for the delights and the luxuries of the cities. Not only do such establishments provide pleasure; they also offer the prospect of healthful rest, education and cultural enlightenment for the masses of Egyptian farmers."

The section on general agriculture was the largest. The 15 papers, spread over 10 pages of the special edition, covered such topics as the attrition of arable land, the benefits of seed enhancement, caring for cotton seeds, traditional fertilisers, the latest research in cotton cultivation, the fertilisation of cotton in Egypt, types of hybrid cotton, some do's and don'ts in growing cotton, increasing cotton yields, artificial fertilisers, rice in Egypt, the sugarcane drought, new breeds of sugar cane and the cultivation of fibre plants in Egypt.

It is only natural that Egypt's "white gold" should have comprised the lion's share of the articles in this section, with fertiliser ranking a distant second. Nevertheless, it is on the latter subject -- specifically on domestic, or "baladi", fertiliser -- that we come across one of the more pleasurable articles. Its author, Dr Fahmi Khalil, bacteriologist in the Agricultural Ministry's Department of Chemistry, describes how it is made. For centuries, the fellahin used soil as the "bedding" for their animals. Soil had excellent absorptive and preservative qualities for ammonia, and the humidity it contained hastened the decomposition of organic matter. Its downside was that it was heavy to move and it conflicted with the desire to keep the animals clean. He continues: "Every day, the fellahin transport the dung-filled mud to small, loosely-heaped piles that are exposed to air and sunlight, two factors of which cause the rapid loss of the nitrogen-rich ammonium and organic substances. In addition, the proximity of these piles to the fellahin's houses is deleterious from the hygienic standpoint."

Nonetheless, according to Dr Khalil, "baladi" fertiliser contains the three most important fertilising ingredients: nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. "In spite of the relatively small amounts of these elements, it imparts to the soil things that are beyond the reach of chemical fertilisers. Not only does it replenish depleted chemical elements but improves the soil's natural qualities and facilitates its use. Regardless of the quality of the turf, it enhances its ability to absorb and retain moisture, and it stimulates that vital chemical activity that is so essential to the success of crops. This is because, unlike chemical fertilisers, natural fertiliser contains that organic matter that originates from dung, the decomposition of which produces that dark, glutinous substance known as manure and to which we owe its special attributes."

The section on horticulture contained 17 articles. One imagines that out of all the categories, readers, especially lay readers, would have turned to this section first, if only because of at least some of the titles: "The future of fruit cultivation in Egypt", "Growing grapes in Egypt", "Nurseries in Egypt", "The baladi lemon and its benefits", "Nuts and their future in Egypt", "The future of mangos in Egypt", "The future of olive and carob cultivation", "Vegetable cultivation and its future", "Preserving fruits and vegetables", "How to make jams and syrups", "Parks in Egypt", "The date drying industry in Egypt", "Common mistakes in the cultivation and use of orchards", "Grafting fruit trees", and last but not least, "The sycamore tree in the Pharaonic era".

Out of all these, one imagines that readers would have turned first to the article on the salubrious baladi lemon, by Dr Mohamed Bahgat. At that time, one learns, Egypt still imported 1,570,000 kilogrammes of this citrus fruit per year, which is somewhat surprising given the "baladi" epithet. We further learn that there are three ways to preserve the juice of this lemon. One could bottle it up as it was, though this carried the risk of eventual fermentation, after which the juice would no longer be usable. He also advised sterilising the containers. Or, one could convert the juice into syrup by adding a kilo of sugar to every litre of juice. "Stir it well and you can obtain a thick syrup that will keep for a long period of time without any change in its flavour or colour." The third way was to create a kind of clarified concentrate, "which must be absolutely clear with no cloudiness whatsoever". To produce this, one had to filter the juice very carefully, then add a bit of yeast .

Readers would have then probably turned to the article on how to preserve fruits and vegetables, by Mohamed Ali Kassab. Peas were best preserved by parboiling them for two minutes and then transferring them to sterilised glass containers. Okra -- Kassab advises selecting the small variety -- had to be thoroughly cleaned then parboiled for five minutes before packing in sterilised glass containers. The same applied to string beans, although care should be taken to peel off the fibrous strings on the sides of the beans before parboiling them, for no more than two minutes.

Pickling has always been a common means of preserving fruits and vegetables. In his article, Kassab offers recipes for pickling olives, cucumbers and onions. The first of these should be left to soak in a two to three per cent bicarbonate of soda solution for two to three days in order to remove the bitterness. The fruit is then washed by immersing it in cold water, which should be changed several times until the flavour of the bicarbonate of soda is eliminated. The olives are then placed in the pickling containers and covered with a salt water solution made up of a kilo of salt for every litre of water. Cucumbers were less cumbersome. He advised, however, that this be done when the vegetables were firm and fresh -- no more than six hours after they had been picked. These were then immersed in a salt water solution with the same salt to water ratio as above and checked every two days to remove the layer of white scum that forms. With regard to onions, one should choose small, round and firm ones, peel and cut off their stems, and soak in water for three days to eliminate their sharpness. Then after rinsing them off, they should be covered with water containing a slightly higher ratio of salt (15 per cent) and checked occasionally to remove the layer of scum.

From pickling it would have been only natural to turn to the article on jams and syrups. This was also written by Kassab who offers basic recipes and essential tips for making grape, pear, peach, apple, fig and plum jams. The most unusual recipe, however, was for watermelon peel jam, for which one removed the green outer layer of the peel and the red flesh, leaving the white inner peel. This was cut unto small chunks and immersed into a light salt water solution (a tablespoon of salt per litre of water) and left to soak for 12 hours. It was then strained, rinsed and placed in boiling water for a quarter of an hour, after which it was strained and rinsed again and placed in a solution of one part sugar to two parts water, brought to a boil again for five minutes and then placed in sterilised jars. An old-time recipe that deserves to be revived -- provided one has the time.

The fourth category, on combating agricultural parasites, contained 13 articles, among which we note again a focus on cotton: "Fighting the cotton worm with chemical substances", "Cotton diseases", "Practical tips on fighting the cotton worm", and "Exterminating the boll weevil that inhabits cotton seed pods". But, there were also articles on "Insects that infest stored grains and pulses", "The latest advances in pesticides", "The woodpecker and how to fight it", "Insects of economic value", "Locusts", "The fruit fly: its destruction of orchard fruits and how to prevent it", and, finally, "Plant diseases: their causes, how they spread and ways of preventing them".

While the cotton worm could wreak havoc on the economy because of its heavy dependence on this crop, one imagines that your average reader would have left the articles on this subject to the experts and homed in instead on the insects infested in stored grain. After all, the topic would have immediately brought to mind the Egyptians' daily repast: foul mudammis.

Unfortunately, foul was a generous host to a certain kind of worm that one hopes does not appear on the breakfast table. According to Professor Rizq Attiya, the author of this article, this infestation effected on the average 10 per cent of foul crop at harvest time and climbed to about 30 per cent by November. He advises storing beans in well insulated central silos and keeping different varieties of grains and pulses separate. He also warns against using sacks that may have been used to transport or store contaminated produce.

In spite of its lengthy heading, the category on "livestock farming, dairy products, apiculture and silk production" was in fact the shortest, containing only four studies: "Beekeeping in ancient times and today", "Silkworm breeding in Egypt", "Protecting animals from infectious diseases", and "Dairy products".

Of these, one imagines that Al-Ahram readers would have been intrigued by the second topic, both because of the lure of the precious fabric produced by these worms and because silk production was such a marginal activity in the Egyptian economy. The article, by Wadie Sharobim, director of the Silk Department at the Ministry of Agriculture, describes the steps his department was taking to promote the silk industry. It was introducing modern methods for silkworm breeding, establishing model silkworm farms and importing the most up-to-date machinery for unravelling cocoons and processing the threads. It was attempting to promote interest in the silkworm farming by having the subject introduced into the educational curriculum and by offering financial awards to those who excel in silkworm breeding. The ministry also was working to improve the strain of Japanese silkworm that had now acclimatised to Egypt after having been brought into the country 70 years previously. Unfortunately, we doubt whether this ambitious programme bore the fruit Sharobim had envisioned.

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A special on the soil