122 COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 



dates, and cotton, a little rice and sugar cane. These products are 

 principally lor their own requirements, but the surplus goes to Egypt. 

 The Sudanese have a very large stock of cattle, sheep, and goats, 

 but the breeding and sale of these are made difficult in consequence 

 of frequent epidemics. 



For the purpose of improving agriculture, the administration 

 has selected primarily the tracts between Wadi Haifa and Sennar, 

 viz., the provinces of Dongola, Berber, Khartoum, and Gezira, of 

 which the district south of Khartoum is by far the most promising. 

 The regions north and south of Khartoum have even to-day the dens- 

 est population of the Sudan. The average humidity of the air is higher 

 towards the south, but does not seem to cause an unfavourable 

 influence on the quality of the cotton ; it is, however, to be feared 

 that the tropical rains which take place regularly south of Khartoum 

 during the months of July to October will at times injure the cotton 

 plantations when they happen to come during the flowering or ripen~ 

 ing periods of the bolls. The province of Kassala and the neighbour- 

 hood of Tokar promise also good results, and the whole of the south 

 seems suitable for rain cultivation. 



Experimental farms have been established for some time by the 

 Government for cotton and other crops at various places, but some 

 of them, as has been the case at Shendi and Kamlin, have again 

 been abandoned. To-day the Government has six experimental farms 

 besides a few small areas which we leave out of account. There is 

 first the central experimental farm at Shambat near Khartoum, which 

 has been transferred in 1912 to the Gordon College, and here it is 

 intended to establish later an agricultural college ; this experimental 

 and demonstration farm, which is devoting its attention principally to 

 the cultivation of cotton, promises to bring a favourable solution to the 

 many disputable points regarding agriculture. The farm is under 

 very able management. The large trial station at Tayiba in the 

 Gezira, which has artificial irrigation, is specially destined to promote 

 cotton cultivation. Of this farm I will speak in detail later on. In 

 the south, at Singa, there is an experimental farm specially for the 

 improvement of the rain crops of that district. Finally, the Govern- 

 ment possesses -three model farms for cotton in the Tokar district. 

 Attention is also paid to the American system of dry farming. 



Insect and plant pests are, generally speaking, of rare occurrence 

 in the Sudan, and precautions have been taken against their introduc- 

 tion. A boll-worm confined to the Sudan is 4< Diparopsis castanea. "" 



The scientific mainstay and assistance of the Sudan Government 

 is the Gordon Memorial College in Khartoum and the Wellcome Tropi- 

 cal Research Laboratories, which were established in connection with 

 it in 1902. The magnificent buildings of the Gordon College contain a 

 school for natives, a museum for local geography, and laboratories for 

 chemistry, botany, entomology, bacteriology', and medicine. 



In 1905 the, Sudan Government founded a special Department of 

 Agriculture and Forests, and in 1906 the Central Economic Board, 

 consisting of the higher officials of the different Government Depart- 

 ments, was created. Contrary to Egypt, the English language is in 

 the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan the only recognised European language. 



