124 COTTON IN EGYPT AXD THE SUDAN. 



foreign capital to come into the country, and it seems to me that 

 some facilities will have to be granted. It is also a principle of the 

 Government that not more than four to five thousand feddans should 

 be given to one concern, and less, if the means of the applicant do not 

 correspond with the requirements of the land. 



Land situated on the Nile near Khartoum may be bought from 

 private owners outriglit at 40 P.T. to 50 P.T per feddan. 



AGRICULTURAL CREDIT. 



As long as there was no bank in existence in the Sudan the 

 Government granted to the peasants small advances mostly for a 

 period of three years against payments of 7i per cent, interest per 

 annum, under the supervision of the local authorities, provided the 

 money was required for the purchase of cattle and agricultural imple- 

 .ments, and for the construction of water lifts. 



In 1906, the National Bank of Egypt, which has agencies in 

 Khartoum, Suakin, and Port Sudan, introduced the system of 

 granting peasants advances against mortgage of their crops, and of 

 protecting them against usurious rates of interest and artificially 

 kept down prices. Generally speaking, however, agricultural credit 

 in the Sudan is very difficult to obtain for the small farmer, except at 

 an excessive rate of interest. 



COTTON CULTIVATION. 



Quite an intense interest is being bestowed lately in the Sudan 

 to the introduction of a rational system of cultivation of cotton. 

 Cotton grows wild almost everywhere in the Nile Valley of the Sudan, 

 and is cultivated by the natives for their own use. The staple of the 

 cotton grown by them is mostly short, nevertheless, quite useful 

 qualities are produced with primitive irrigation, or, as is the case in 

 Sennar, as a rain crop. The Sudan cotton, which has a small boll, 

 is mostly cultivated as a mixed crop with Durra, and is sold by the 

 Sudanese for the damoors, a cloth which is very much appreciated 

 and is used for the ordinary clothing of the natives, but is also worn 

 by Europeans. Although the fibre of this cotton may only be 23 mm. 

 to 26 mm., therefore considerably shorter than the Egyptian cotton, 

 still it has a distinct relationship with the latter. Evidently the Sudan 

 cotton is an offspring from crossings of the indigenous kind with the 

 old Jumel cotton, cultivated in the Sudan several decades ago, at the 

 time of the Egyptian occupation, the traces of which are met with 

 everywhere. 



The following indigenous kinds are known : The annual 

 " Belledi " shrub, as for instance in Sennar, is quite a different kind 

 from the Egyptian cotton, and resembles more the Uplands or Hindi 

 cotton, it has a white flower and a white inferior fibre; but the wild- 

 growing Nyam-Nyam kidney cotton, grown in Bahr-el-Ghazal, 

 whose dark yellow flower has a red centre, seems to have some 

 relationship with the Egyptian or Peruvian kind. Besides these, there 

 are two tree cottons of Asiatic character, viz., one with yellow 

 flowers but larger red spots than the Egyptian cotton, it has a white, 

 short and coarse fibre and a small seed, and, finally, there is a red- 

 flowering tree cotton. 



