Anglo Sudan-Egyptian] AGRICULTURE (COTTON , Etc.) 105 The export There is also an export of cotton seed, which containsan oil used for culinary purposes, for making edible fats, and for soap -making. amounted in 1914 to 3,012 tons, valued at £ 12,509 ,and rose in 1915 to 8,244 tons, valued at £33,376 .

Cotton-seed cake is a by -product made from the pulp and débris left after the seeds have been crushed for the extraction of the oil . Decorticated cotton -seed cake is much used in Germany for feeding cattle, but isnot in general use in Great Britain. Another by -product is cotton - seed wax .

Many other fibres are grown by thenatives of the Nile provinces of the Sudanasrainfall crops in dis tricts which are extremely unlikely ever to be in demand for cotton -growing: At present these are cultivated for native use only, but some would be of considerable commercial value if grown in sufficient quantity or cultivated as regular field crops so as to yield fibre of standard length and quality for the European markets . If it were not that the “ retting ” and other processes of preparation have to be carried out whilst the leaf blades are fresh, and require costly machinery, the cultivation of these plants might be encouraged to almost any extent as a native industry, the raw material being bought by the Government or by private firms at a fixed price and machined on the spot.

Bow -stringhemp is produced from the long fleshy leaves of the Sanseviera guineensis, which grows wild throughout the Bahr el-Ghazal and Mongalla provinces.

Thewild plants, however, are so widely scattered that the fibre cannot be profitably exploited . The plant can be readily propagated, and large waste areasofsandy bushland could be planted with it at very small cost. The plants begin to yield their crop of leaves two years after planting . Samples of plantation -grown Sanseviera fibre from Mongalla have been valued at £ 30 per ton ..

Indian jute (Corchorus capsularis) has been grown experimentally at Kodok, on the White Nile, with success. In June 1911 a sample of 70 lb. was valued