Anglo Sudan 101 -Feyptian] AGRICULTURE (COTTON) ing annually to over 8,000 tons of seed cotton , must pass (by regulation) intothe Government cotton market at Tokar where it is graded officially into four separate classes and afterwards weighed . No cotton is allowed to leave the market until it has been branded with its grade and the bales have been duly sealed. It is then sold by auction and sent bycamel transport to Trinkitat harbour, where it is loaded into sailing vessels and taken toSuakin, a voyage of from one and a half to two days. There it is ginned andexported. No unginned cotton is allowed to leave the Sudan , except by land to Abyssinia and Eritrea .

Cotton-growing at Tokar could be considerably developed , at a comparatively small outlay , by adopt ing the following measures : ( a ) the control of the Baraka flood water in such a manner as to ensure a fixed and developed course ; ( b ) the establishment of a local ginning factory; and (c) the construction of a railway line to Suakin . Should such a scheme be adopted, a permanent annual output of over 25,000 bales of lint might be expected .

In the Kassala district the conditions are similar to those in Tokar . The River Mareb, draining the high lands of Abyssinia and Eritrea, and the Khor Gash flood the country between July 7 and September 15 . The annual crop is estimated at about 560 tons.

Here, too, there is the possibility of very great development . When the flood waters of the Kbor Gash havebeen regulated , over 120,000 acres of suitable land could be putunder cultivation, and the output of cotton could be raised to over 20,000 bales per annum , with the possibility of a far larger production in the future. Such developments, however, would bepremature unless Kassala were linked up by railway with other centres; but that will shortly be accomplished by the projected railway of 214 miles to Thamiam, on the Atbara - Port Sudan line.

The output of cotton at Tokar during the period of nine years ending in 1916 is shown in the following table :