COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 129 



Receipts : 



4,5001bs. lint at Is 225 



9,0001bs. seed 30 255 



Payments : 



Rent, 4 per f eddan 40 



Growing and picking 30 



Seed, ginning, pressing 7 



Freight to Alexandria 17 94 



Profit of the tenant ... ^161 



In this calculation it must be considered that, in consequence of 

 the failure of the Egyptian crop in 1909, exceptionally high prices 

 were paid. 



The satisfactory results achieved in Zeidab seemed to encourage 

 the extension of this system along the whole length of the river 

 between Zeidab and Khartoum. The banks are almost everywhere 

 occupied by the cultivation of the natives, and the hinterland being at 

 a lower level than the Nile bank could easily have been changed 

 through a chain of pumping stations into flourishing cotton planta- 

 tions. It is just these lower-lying " Karoo " lands which are the 

 most suitable for the establishment of larger undertakings, and they 

 are most in request for land concessions. 



The season of 1911 was, however, very unfavourable for Zeidab. 

 The cotton crop had to suffer much from cool weather, and from the 

 attacks of boll-worm, so that the Company, besides having suffered 

 direct losses, was also suffering from the fact that the natives were 

 not in a position to pay for the water rent. Therefore, the water 

 supply was refused to them temporarily. 



The season of 1912 was again more satisfactory, and The Sudan 

 Plantation Syndicate has paid its first dividend of 12^ per cent. 



Nevertheless, the great fluctuations in the yield of the crop seem 

 to be a question of importance. 



Besides the modern plantation at Zeidab there are in the north of 

 Khartoum cotton plantations at Sagai, Kaderu, Kelli, Fadlab, and 

 Darmeli on the Nile, and at Minawi on the Atbara, all on land for 

 which the Government has given concessions, but these plantations 

 had, in 1910, only about 1,000 feddans planted with cotton, and have 

 not extended the area since then. All these plantations have not 

 achieved satisfactory results, and there does not seem to be any 

 prospects that the future will show an improvement. A concession 

 given for Soba near Khartoum was not followed up at all. It must 

 also be considered that, even if cotton cultivation north of 

 Khartoum pays, the field crops that must be grown in rotation with 

 cotton, on account of the cost of artificial irrigation, can only be sold 

 in the immediate neighbourhood with a small profit. 



Inclusive of the cultivation by natives, 36,000 feddans were 

 grown with cotton in 1908 in the provinces of Dongola and Berber. 

 In the province of Dongola the rapid rise and fall of the flood in 1911 

 caused difficulties in the way of irrigation, and on account of cold 

 weather in November, and of the presence of the cotton worm, the 

 cotton crop remained behind the average. In fact, the cotton produc- 



