— 7 — planting season and early growth of cotton, complicates the problems of perennial irrigation.* The Central Province should be our principal stock-breeding area, as enjoying relative freedom from the more tropical types of disease, and good grazing over a lengthy season. Large numbers of butchers' stock should be annually drafted for fattening and finishing to irrigated areas in the north abutting on the railway system. Natural grazing should be supplemented on the spot by the provision of hay, silage and catch crops. Many areas should carry improved grasses, such as paspalum, teff and Rhodes grass. The gradual introduction of better blood for the grading up of native stock would also be profitable as soon as an approved system of feeding and management had been evolved. The valuable control of endemic diseases already organised by the Veterinary Department, would do much to ensure rapid and successful development of a livestock industry.

Useful lessons may be drawn from current development of the Tripolitain and Tunisian hinterlands, with direct application to the Central Sudan. A very similar rainfall and comparable conditions of soil and climate obtain in all three countries, but while hundreds of square miles have been planted to olives, carobs and other food and revenue-producing trees in the two former areas, this, the only finally approved system of dr;y farming, is unknown in the Sudan.

Southern Province.—A region embracing the White Nile basin south of Kaka, the Sobat River basin to the Abyssinian border, the Nuba Mountains and the northern districts of the Bahr-el-Gazal and Mongalla Provinces, is characterised by a rainfall adequate to the requirements of most sub-tropical staples. When fully developed it should constitute the granary of the Sudan and furnish large shipments of such oil-seeds as ful-sudani, simsim, hemp and cotton seed. A fibre industry might be built up on the cultivation of American long-staple cotton, sisal and manilla hemp, jute and ramie. Citrus, pineapples, bananas, mangoes and other tropical fruits would fiourish in selected areas from evidence already available, while tobacco of good pipe-leaf type should replace the extensive crops of rank native weed.

The education of native labour and the organisation of efiicient rivertransport are necessary preliminaries to the work of development.

* If ploughing be done prior to the early rains, weed-growth assumes a serious character before planting can be completed, while if postponed until the ground is sufficiently moistened to furnish a good tilth, the time factor is involved and operations may be impeded by wet weather. Such an issue" would limit the area planted, and with it the earning capacity of the ploughing outfits. This question has arisen in serious form at Barakat during the past season, and may be further compUoated. by the effects of heavy rains on the young cotton. Egyptian types are notoriously susceptible to damage by rain during early growth, and this consideration may influence a decision in favour of long-staple American varieties for this district. A partial solution would be found in a supply of summer water for ploughing purposes, and earlier planting. Preliminary irrigation would germinate weed seeds, and this growth would be largely destroyed by the plough. Earlier planting would similarly place the young cotton crop out of danger from heavy rains. Such a system would, however, only be possible after removal of the restrictions imposed by Egypt on our use of summer water.