- 146 -It increases significantly in summer, and it is understood that the cost of irrigating the Karkag was known. Therefore, a project is planned for next year to increase the water of the Blue Nile by 50 percent by improving the course of the Bahr El Zeraf. The largest new work undertaken in the Dongola province was the El-Kere project, which facilitates the irrigation of 4,000 feddans with floodwaters. Other works were also carried out to irrigate 4,000 to 6,000 feddans with floodwaters as well. In Kerma, approximately 26,000 feddans were irrigated, of which about 20,000 feddans were cultivated, compared to 3,000 in 1909. The total area irrigated in all the basins of the Dongola province this year was 4,000 feddans, at a cost that clearly shows that expanding the irrigation of basins in this province is a profitable endeavor for the government. Valuable information was gathered about the carrot cultivation project, and it became increasingly clear that the money invested in irrigating this fertile plain yields profits, and the country reaps great benefits from it. Mr. Tamam said: If it is proven that cotton thrives during the flood season, then the information we have gathered about the water flow in the Blue Nile in recent years indicates that it is possible to irrigate three million feddans with canals without exceeding the water needed for the Egyptian province. If it is proven that wheat thrives in winter, then the area of land that can be irrigated depends more on the water in the Blue Nile in January, February, and March than on the water in the early flood months. However, the success of such a large project, particularly for cotton cultivation, does not depend solely on the results obtained from the agricultural experimental fields, which have now been properly initiated, but also on other factors such as the efficiency of landowners and their desire to improve by facilitating irrigation, and the ability of the inhabitants to cultivate crops in succession over such a large area.