100 ITALIAN SOMALII.AXD - AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY IX CxEXERAL 



hydraulic works which will regulate and dam its course, at least in the 

 region of High Goscia which is among the most fertile in Sonialiland. 



The extent of land available for cultivation by white colonists is very 

 great if the sparse popiilation and the slightness of native agriculture be 

 considered, but is limited not by area but by the volume of the waters of 

 the rivers in the season of scarcity. This limitation can be parth- correc- 

 ted by artificial dikes and reser\-oirs, and also by the results which may be 

 yielded by the investigations — as yet incomplete — into the nature of 

 crops and the sowing seasons, and which will show how to derive the greatest 

 possible profit from the rainfall, the irrigation from the rivers being regarded 

 as a supplementars' resource. It is clear that to reach this result it will be 

 necessary to confront the vast and complex problem of a general utiliza- 

 tion of the rivers, which now follow their unregulated courses, wandering 

 through the plains as chance has willed it. 



It would be interesting to review more fully the various crops which 

 flourish or might flourish in the colony of Somaliland, but to do so would 

 take us too far bej'ond the limits of this stud5^ For information on this 

 subject we refer the reader to Statement 4 in the Report on Somaliland 

 of Governor De Martino (Docnmenti, Rome, Chamber of Deputies, 1912, 

 pages 146-190) in which Dr. Romolo Onor ver\' adequately analyses, in a 

 stud}' called " Xotes on Agriculture ", the facts as to the various crops, namely 

 cotton, tobacco, maize, sesamum, arachidis, beans, forage grasss, india- 

 rubber, kapok, cocoa-palm, agave sisalana and other lignous plants ; and 

 also to the Acts of the Second Congress of Italians Abroad, Vol. I. Part III. 

 Pages 1431 - 1567 (Rome. Tip. Ed. Xaz. iQii). 



As regards natural vegetation, subdivided into forest and undergrowth, 

 we will sa3' briefly that the only forest j^roperly so-called extends along the 

 Juba for a distance of about a hundred kilometres and has an average 

 depth of no more than 200 metres (i). It is clear therefore that forests of 

 forest trees in Somaliland are very unimportant. Beyond this stretch along 

 the Juba and others like it but of less area, found at several points along 

 the Scebeli, there is in Benadir a monotonous arboraceous vegetation, little 

 developed and ver^- thorny, chiefly bushes. On the whole it is the opinion 

 of competent experts that the resources to be derived from the spontaneous 

 vegetation of Italian Somaliland are ver\' limited. 



B. — The Raising of Live Stock. 



Somaliland is a country well suited to pasturage. There is excellent 

 pastureland, all on the plain, and of interminable extent. Since the dn.' sea- 

 son lasts onh' for about four months in the year it is clear that the raising 

 of useful live stock is the most important feature in the country's economy. 



The capital in live stock is indeed considerable. Statistics which the 

 colonial government has been enabled by the district authorities to prepare 

 show that in Southern Somaliland alone there are about 764,000 head of 



(i) I metre = i.orj4 yard?. 



