JNTRODUCTION.

THE AGl^ICULTUEAL PEOBLEM IN THE

ANGLO-EeYPTIAN SUDAN.

ERRATUM.

Page 20, two lines fram foot:— Fop 482 millifemes read 482 metres.

suggestions tor the improvement of indigenous agricultural systems. The

character and capacity of the local cultivator will eoii.sef|uently largely determine

future progress and call for careful examination. .\t the outset it should he

recognised that the mark of slavery is on the land. For centuries the negroid

tribes of the south have furnished slave lahour for the worlc of cultivation in

the north, and the recent manumissio)i of slaves has destroyed the verv

foundations of an established system, and has brought into being all the

])roblems of a social revolution.

Lack of initiative reflected by the most primitive methods of agriculture,

a stroiig and inherited objection to work for a daily wage, intolerance of control

and an intense cojiservatism are the legacy of slavery to the land-owner, who

is now called upon to bear the unaccustomed burden of field labour. " That

he does not yet appreciate the Government's attitude towards slave holding is,

in the circnnistauces, a cause for little surprise, and the dictum of Adam Smith

that

' the experience of all ages and nations demonstrates the work done by

slaves to be in the end the dearest of any,' leaves him unconviiiced, dissatisfied

p.