488 A TROPICAL DEPENDENCY entirely — for local consumption, and consist commonly of various kinds of corn and beans, cassava, rice, ground nuts, yams, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, sorrel, onions, taniers, ochres, gourds of many kinds, and peppers. In addition to these, wheat and sugar-cane are grown as a special form of cultivation in some districts ; wheat rather extensively in the Wobe Valley, in North Bornu, where the same conditions of rich soil repeat themselves, as in the valleys of the south. For industrial purposes the most widely grown crops are cotton, tobacco, indigo, and beniseed.

Of these cotton is the crop which will at first most naturally attract European attention. It has from time immemorial been a crop native to the soil. It is grown in large quantities and of good quality all over the Protectorate.

It has been already seen that the soil of the Gongola valley, repeating the conditions of the valley of the Nile, is particularly favourable to the growth of heavy cotton crops, and, owing to the cheap water-transport available, its harvest could be easily exported. The greater part of Southern Bornu consists of cotton soil. On the edge of Lake Chad a specially fine quality of cotton, locally known as **Ballum," grows with extraordinary luxuriance. At the time that the High Commissioner's party passed in December last, the cotton bushes were in full bearing. They were growing in clumps, of which measurements were taken by the botanical expert who accompanied the party, and the plants were found to be ten feet high, while each clump measured about fifteen yards in circumference. This is almost phenomenal for cotton. They carried a very heavy crop. The cotton which they bore is silky and long in the staple, and even locally fetches a high price.

The provinces of Kano and Katagum are full of cotton, which is grown with care in fenced enclosures.

In Zaria, every town and village has its cotton fields. The people thoroughly understand its cultivation, and