— 18 —

responsible by convention for half the land-tax. The details of such an arrange-

ment and its working in actual practice are discussed in the body of the report.

For the purpose of the present review it will suffice to state that in the case of

both rain-lands and irrigated areas, " ushur " or a tithe of the crop is regarded

as a fair rent for use of the land, while in the latter case four-tenths is regarded

as the mean cost of the water supply. Irrigation costs include purchase and

feeding of four bulls (for a 10-feddan sakia), construction and upkeep of the

water-wheel and payment of the " baseer," who keeps the sakia in repair. On

average crops of cotton, wheat and dura at normal prices, the tenant would

annually pay per feddan £E. 2.900 for land and water, and 200 milliemes as his

half share of the land-tax, from a gross average return of £E. 5.800. From the

meagre balance remaining provision has to be made for seed and implements

which local customs regards as absorbing four-thirtieths of the crop, leaving,

say, four-tenths of the crop, valued on the above basis at £E.2.320 to cover the

costs of actual cultivation and compensate the owner for his labour:*

Costs of Rain Cultivation.—The cultivator of rain-lands, on the other hand,

has no such heavy bill of costs, for his expenses directly reflect the primitive

methods in vogue. Ploughing is rarely practised, the seed being dibbled with

the " seluka " in the freshly-moistened soil ; the " hush," or cleaning, is

completed with the " touriya," or hoe, and subsequent operations are limited

to harvesting and threshing. Peacockf estimates the average cost of cultivating

and harvesting one " gadaa " of land under dura feterita as £E. 1.250, which, with

good rain should produce 15 ardebs, worth, on the previous estimate, £E.9.000,

or a nett profit of £E. 1.550 per feddan after all expenses have been paid. A

useful commentary on these figures is, however, found in the returns of rain-land

assessed for land-tax, which in 1912 amounted to 78,656 feddans, and in 1913 to

4,366. J The speculative character of the crop is further evidenced by the

violent annual fluctuations in the market prices of such typical rain crops as

dura. The total or partial loss of crop, seed and labour, at more or less frequent

intervals, goes far to discount the profits of good years, and to limit attempts in

the direction of improved cultivation.

The Irrigation Problem.

The outstanding problem of rain-farming in the North and Central Sudan

is the speculative character of cultivation dependert on a very uncertain rainfall,

while the sakia cultivator is burdened by almost prohibitive costs of irrigation. The provision of an adequate water supply at a reasonable rate would

consequentlyremove in both cases the principal obstacle to development, and pave

* W. A. Davie : " Report on the Gezira Agricultural Experiment Station."

f Op. cit.

X Annual Report, Department of Agriculture.