- 28 -Chapter Two On Agriculture 12 – Establishment of the Department of Agriculture This department began its work regularly from the beginning of 1911. At that time, the government abolished the greater part of the subsidy it used to give annually to the Khedivial Agricultural Society. It transferred most of the employees from the society to the department, including three inspectors, ten assistants, the chemist, and the Bannani. It employed other inspectors with the necessary agricultural knowledge, then appointed an Egyptian man as Undersecretary to the Director-General and brought a man with expertise in entomology from Europe. This department was added, after research and deliberation, to the Ministry of Public Works. It incorporated the Gardens Cultivation Society and a number of its responsibilities, including expanding the cultivation of fruit trees and vegetables, and teaching people these two important branches. In the budget for 1912, there were also four inspectors, and the wages of students from the Agricultural School were paid if they joined the Department of Agriculture. A special credit was opened for the establishment of a specialized poultry section for the improvement of eggs and the breeding of a type of chicken that is not susceptible to common diseases that sometimes decimate poultry, making it infertile.

13 – Cotton Distribution of good seeds. I mentioned in the introduction to this report the difficulty that small farmers face in obtaining good seeds, and that the government has begun to provide them with suitable seeds. An agreement was reached with the most diligent ginning factory owners to follow the best seeds from them so that they could be provided to small farmers at a lower price than they were accustomed to paying merchants for inferior seeds. The government pays the price at the beginning of the year and collects it along with the miri (state tax) in November at the time of harvest. The amount of seeds sold by the government in 1912 so far has reached approximately 40,000 ardebs, which is ten times the amount of seeds needed for cotton. This distribution of seeds will have a significant impact on the entire country.