AndedorEgyptian ] LABOUR ; AGRICULTURE 97 Sudan Grain. Crops. - The large millet ( sorghum , dura, dhurra, aish) is the staple grain food of the Sudan and the crop grown most extensively, 61.7 per cent. of the total cultivated area being devoted to its production .

Its cultivation might be increased to any extent. It is grown on irrigated holdings, rain land, and areas Hooded by the annual rise of the Nile. There are many varieties of dura, each suited to some particular locality or conditions of soil and climate. Its albuminoid nutrient ratio is higher than that of wheat , and its fat content is specially high,being 3-3 per cent., as against 1.2 per cent . in wheat. It is valuable as a substitute for wheat and other cereals in poultry and cattle food, a fact not sufficiently appreciated in the United King dom . The natives brew an intoxicating drink , in appearance rather like pea soup, from fermented dura .

The chief market for this grain is Omdurman , during the months of April and May, when prices are usually at their highest — about £6 3s . to £6 10s. per metric ton. A cleaning machine was erected in 1914 for experi mental purposes at the Moghren Quays (Khartum) to deal with sesame and dura, and was in great demand early in the winter, when the export of these products was possible. There is no doubt that other machines could be utilised .

The lesser or spiked millet (dukhn) is the second most important grain crop of the Sudan, occupying 25 per cent. of the whole cultivated area . Cultivated chiefly as a rain crop , but also on irrigated holdings, it is the species most frequently grown in Kordofan. In 1916 over 10,000 metric tons of this cereal were exported to Arabia .

Wheat (kamh) occupied only 2 per cent. of the total cultivated area up to 1916, when efforts were made by the Government to increase the area under this crop both in Egypt and in the Sudan . It is grown chiefly in the Dongola province on irrigated holdings. The crop represents only 1 per cent . of the whole grain production of the Sudan , but, when the Gezira