102 [No. 98 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS Seed Cotton . Ginned Cotton .

Price Season . Yield in tons.

Total value.

No. of bales.1 per ton.

...

1907-1908 1908-1909 1909-1910 1910–1911 1911-1912 1912-1913 1913-1914 1914-1915 1915-1916 3,981 2,343 4,361 6,912 4,982 5,077 2,936 9,035 5,692 £ S. d . 12 9 0 19 10 3 34 10 0 21 19 6 19 2 10 23 7 ? 20 15 8 12 15 8 20 11 0 f 49,563 45,718 150,454 151,891 95,364 118,590 61,020 115,497 116,970 Bales.

7,022 4,133 7,693 12,193 8,788 8,957 5,168 15,937 10,060 ...

::: 1 One bale weighs 400 lb.

The Gezira (Arabic for island ) , the district between the Blue and White Niles , is an ideal cotton -growing region. It is a flat , triangular plain, with Khartum at its apex, and the railway connecting the two , Niles at its base . Its area is about 4,000,000 acres. It consists of fine alluvial soil , and, since the slope of the land from the Blue towards the White Nile is scarcely perceptible, no expenditure for levelling is involved ; it would appear only to require irriga tion to become one of the most fertile areas in the Sudan . A scheme for the irrigation of the Gezira is at present under consideration ( see below , p . 120) . Should it be realised, the annual crop of cotton from the first 500,000 acres brought into cultivation is estimated at not less than 10,000 bales of high -class Egyptian cotton, with the prospect of the production increasing to 250,000 bales within 10 or 15 years, and with further possibilities in the future . Besides this, it would be possible to grow some thousands of tons of grain and to rear large numbers of cattle and sheep. The total value of the cereal produce likely to be raised has been calculated at over £2,000,000 per annum .

The Sudan Plantations Syndicate, in co -operation with the Sudan Government and the British Cotton