Carpenters and cabinet-makers formed a large class of Egyptian workmen for making coffins, boxes, tables, chairs, doors, sofas, and other articles of furniture, frequently inlaid with ivory and rare woods.  Veneering was known to these workmen, probably arising from the scarcity of wood.  The tools used by the carpenters, as appear from the representations on the monuments, were the axe, the adze, the hand-saw, the chisel, the drill, and the plane.  These tools were made of bronze, with handles of acacia, tamarisk, and other hard woods.  The hatchet, by which trees were felled, was used by boat-builders.  The boxes and other articles of furniture were highly ornamented with inlaid work.

Boat-building in Egypt also employed many workmen.  Boats were made of the papyrus plant, deal, cedar, and other woods, and were propelled both by sails and oars.  One ship-of-war built for Ptolemy Philopater is said by ancient writers to have been 478 feet long, to have had forty banks of oars, and to have carried 400 sailors, 4,000 rowers, and 3,000 soldiers.  This is doubtless an exaggeration, but indicates great progress in naval architecture.  The construction of boats varied according to the purpose for which they were intended.  They were built with ribs as at the present day, with small keels, square sails, with spacious cabins in the centre, and ornamented sterns; there was usually but one mast, and the prows terminated in the heads of animals.  The boats of burden were somewhat similar to our barges; the sails were generally painted with rich colors.  The origin of boat-building was probably the raft, and improvement followed improvement until the ship-of-war rivalled in size our largest vessels, while Egyptian merchant vessels penetrated to distant seas, and probably doubled the Cape of Good Hope.

In regard to agriculture the Egyptians were the most advanced of the nations of antiquity, since the fertility of their soil made the occupation one of primary importance.  Irrigation was universally practised, the Nile furnishing water for innumerable canals.  The soil was often turned up with the hoe rather than the plough.  The grain was sown broadcast, and was trodden in by goats.  Their plough was very simple, and was drawn by oxen; the yoke being attached to the horns.  Although the soil was rich, manures were frequently used.  The chief crops were those of wheat, barley, beans, peas, lentils, vetches, lupines, clover, rice, indigo, cotton, lettuce, flax, hemp, cumin, coriander, poppy, melons, cucumbers, onions, and leeks.  We do not read of carrots, cabbages, beets, or potatoes, which enter so largely into modern husbandry.  Oil was obtained from the olive, the castor-berry, simsin, and coleseed.  Among the principal trees which were cultivated were the vine, olive, locust, acacia, date, sycamore, pomegranate, and tamarisk.  Grain, after harvest, was trodden out by oxen, and the straw was used as provender.  To protect the fields from inundation dykes were built.