65 417 7. A From an agricultural point of view the most important development during the year is the promise given by the Irrigation Department that, on the completion of the raising of the Assouan dam, it will be possible to double the allowance of “ summer ” water available for the Soudan, which at present is only sufficient for 10,000 feddans. This decision will encourage land reclamation and the development of cultivable land, and will tend to improve the possibilities of the Soudan as a cotton-producing country. The British Cotton Growers’ Association are interesting themselves in the Soudan from this point of view, and are being supplied with all available information on the subject. The main point to be borne in mind is that the development of cotton cultivation is a matter of money, and that the requisite funds must be found by private enterprise. So far as quality is concerned it is now recognized that some parts of the Soudan are capable of producing cotton equal to that grown in the Delta.

No new land concessions were granted during the year, and there have been but few applications for agricultural land. The Soudan Plantations Syndicate at Zeidab has, however, been granted an option to take up a further large area adjoining its present concession. The syndicate has also been given permission, for a period of three years, to irrigate from its existing pumping installation some 1,400 feddans of nativeowned land in the neighbourhood. This experiment has been received with ffivour by the people, and it is hoped that it w-ill encourage private enterprise to take up the idea of providing irrigation facihties for riverain lands ov/ned by natives.

Both rainfall and flood have been good this year, and the country has been tree from pests. Agriculture has prospered, and there is a net increase in the area of land returned as cultivated of 432,590 feddans. In the artificially irrigated area there is a slight diminution, probably due to the fact that many holdings formerly irrigated by water-wheels have this year come under flood cultivation, ■which shows an increase of 133,000 feddans. The area of rain cultivation exceeds that of 1908 by 313,518 feddans. The crops in general, especially dukhn, dhurra, and sesame, have done well. The two latter rain-grown crops comprise practically the "whole of the grain export from the Soudan. The diminution in last year s cotton yield is accounted for by a falling off in the returns from Tokar, where the area cultivated depends on the uncertain quantity of the Baraka flood.

8. W As 1 mentioned last year five experimental rubber plantabiolis are now under observation; it is reported that botli Para and Ceara rubber seem likely to do well in the southern plantations on the Bahr-el-Jebel, but it is doubtful whether the three northern plantations wdll prove a commercial success. The plantation of Ceara rubber at Wau in the Bahr-el-Gha2al continues to make satisfactory progress.

One of the chief needs of the Soudan is an efficient system of fire-protection for the large and valuable forests with which the country abounds. The area in which such protection was attempted this year amounted to 191 square miles. The riverain belts of the Sennar reserves have now been protected for four years in succession, and the beneficial effect on natural reproduction in the mixed forest is already most marked.

9. T The experience of the last three years tends to show that the Soudan has a sound commercial future before it as an exporter of raw materials and foodstuffs. In addition to staple products such as gum, ivory and ostrich feathers, which at first constituted the main resources of the country, livestock, hides and skins, rubber, beeswax, motherof-pearl shell, wheat, dhurra, barley, cotton and cotton-seed, oil seeds (sesame and ground nuts), dates, senna and gold now appear, in a greater or smaller degree, on the export list.

The value of maize exported has grown from £E. 8,000 during the whole tw-elve uionths of 1906 to E. 128,000 for the first nine months of 1909, but the demand in the latter year was abnormal owing to the partial failure of the Egyptian crop in 1908. It may, however, be hoped that Egypt, having learned to appreciate the good qualities of Soudan maize, will in future supply her deficiencies from that country rather than from abroad.

The cultivation of sesame is increasing rapidlyj and this product lias begun to find [384] b r House of Commons Parliamentary Papers Online. Copyright (c) 2006 ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved.