110 [No, 98 ECONOMIC CONDITIONS a large local demand, since dried and pressed dates form one of the chief foods of the nomadArabs in the desert . Sudan dates are not suitable for export to Europe, as Algerian, Tunisian, and other soft dates are there preferred as dessert fruit .

Medicinal Plants and Drugs .—The chief medicinal plant is senna (Cassia acutifolia ), which grows wild in the northern part of the Sudan, particularly in the Berber and Halfa provinces, and is also fairly exten sively cultivated. În 1914 the price per ton was £20, and in 1916 it rose to £60 . The product from the cultivated plant fetches somewhat less than that obtained from the wild plant, but it still brings the cultivator as much as £40 per acre. The senna is exported in a clean state to France and England.

Henbane , colocynth , datura, and other drugs grow wild in the Sudan, and , if in demand, could be obtained in quantity. Colocynthpulp is baled before exporting .

Other Products:—Wild coffee of promising quality is to be found in several places in the Mongalla and Bahr el-Ghazal provinces.

Sugar-cane isgrownin Berber on irrigated holdings, and its cultivation might be largely extended. At present sugar is of little importance as an export.

Tobaccowas at one time extensively grownin Egypt, and had a high reputation , especially for cigarettes.

The Khedivial Government, however, found it more profitable, from the point of view of revenue, to import the dried leaf and export manufactured cigarettes. Cultivation was therefore abandoned, and leaf was imported , mainly from Greece, but also to some extent from Turkey. Subsequently the cultivation of tobacco became a Turkish monopoly, and in 1890 the Khedivial Government decreed that none at all should be grown in Egypt . The Anglo -Egyptian Sudan followed suit by anagreement in 1904. The monopoly remained in force until Turkey declared war and Egypt became a British Protectorate.

During 1917 , when Thessaly and Anatolia — two of the chief tobacco -growing districts — were closed to