110 The following table, which deals with quantities of articles exported, shows roughly a comparison of exports between five years of war conditions and five years preceding the war :— Article Cotton Cattle Sheep Millet Cum Sesame Hides Skins 1905-09.

bales of 400 lb.

number .. tons number 30,000 1,271 111,465 41,716 47,115 11,358 479 680,563 1910-M 1915-19.

75,000 64,428 459,231 53,5 / 7 75,050 26,986 1,499 1,928,662 86,000 129,577 648,565 245,310 73,503 39,699 5,010 1,552,440 The statistics for 1905-09 are approximate. The following table shows the source of Soudan imports in 1918 : — "Great Britain Egypt India and Aden South Africa Abyssinia Eritrea Italy Japan Other countries Percentage.

29 30 16 8 5 1 5 u It is an indication of the greatly increased prosperity of the native that whereas in 1914 imports of cotton fabrics, sugar, coiiee, tea and spices were valued at £E. 684,320, the value of these imports in 1918 was no less than £E. 2,062,631.

All the principal food products of the country at one time or another during the past five years have been placed under varying degrees of control both as regards direction or quantity of export.

On the whole, however, Soudan trade has been freer from restrictions than that of most other countries.

lY.—AGRICULTURE AND IRRIGATION; 8. Agriculture.

The agricultural situation during the period of the war lias been on the whole satisfactory.

As must always be the case in a country where such a great proportion of thecultivation is dependent upon variable rains and fickle and uncontrolled floods, the areas cropped and the average and total yields of various agricultural products have shown wide difi'erences from year to year.

The rainfall, upon which the most important agricultural provinces are so dependent, is at the best generally deficient in amount and unsatisfactory in its distribution, while the areas inundated by the annual floods of the Nile, the Gash,, and the Baraka are a constantly varying quantity.

Fortunately the period of the war has been coincident in the Soudan with a cycle of better than average agricultural seasons.

The period opened with excellent rains in 1914, which broke a cycle of very bad years and put an end to wliat were practically famine conditions in certain districts.

The following year the rains could only be described as fair, but in both 1916 and 1917 they were distinctly favourable, while the Nile flood in these years was well above the average.

In 1918 the flood was poor, while the rains were indifierent for the early part of the season and a complete failure at the end.

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