130 COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN, 



tion in the districts north of Khartoum has been through the various 

 years subject to severe fluctuations. There were : 

 In the year 1905, 226 tons unginned. 



1906, 124 



1907, 361 



,, 1908, 219 ,, and 161 tons ginned. 



1909, 389 229 



,, 1910, 798 ,, cotton, and cotton seed. 



1911, 747 



In the province of Berber, cotton is sown either in March and 

 picked in August and September, or in June and picked in November 

 to February. The quality of the first crop is excellent, but the latter 

 period is more to be recommended owing to the easier means of 

 obtaining the water at the time of the Nile flood. 



Particularly favourable prospects exist for cotton growing in the 

 most fertile alluvial land of the Gezira plain, a kind of peninsula 

 between the confluence of the White and Blue Niles. This table- 

 land, tapering gently from east to west, forms, so to say, an ideal 

 country for irrigation, which receives water from the Blue Nile that 

 is rich in manuring substances, and takes it to the White Nile. The 

 area, which is equal to one-third of the whole of the cultivated area 

 of Egypt, could grow, with the necessary irrigation, three to five 

 million feddans with wheat and cotton alternately. Sir William 

 Garstin, and the well-known Manchester gentleman, The Right Hon. 

 Sir William Mather, have suggested the following irrigation system : 

 A weir at Sennar on the Blue Nile, and a number of pumping stations 

 and canals are already decided upon for the northern part of that area 

 which is to be taken in hand first. This measures 500,000 feddans, 

 and the necessary capital outlay would be ^"3,000,000 sterling. The 

 work would require 10 to 15 years to complete. As cotton and 

 wheat could be planted here with success, if the necessary water 

 supply is provided up to the end of March, whilst Egypt requires the 

 water mostly from April to the end of July, it is evident that the 

 water requirements of the two countries would not enter into compe- 

 tition. If necessary the Tsana Lake in Abyssinia might be con- 

 structed into a reservoir, or the water from the White Nile might 

 be utilised too. 



After Sir William Mather had, on the 13th October, 1910, 

 explained, in an address delivered in the Town Hall of Manchester, 

 the great importance of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, and especially of 

 the Gezira plain, as regards cotton growing, thus stirring up the 

 interest of the cotton industrials of Lancashire to the proposition, 

 The Sudan Plantation Syndicate, Ltd., offered to undertake, on 

 behalf of the Sudan Government, trial experiments with cotton and 

 other products at Tayiba in Wad Medani, on the Blue Nile, during 

 three to four years, with the financial assistance of the 

 Government. It was decided to await these results before embarking 

 on the execution of the larger scheme, for which the necessary funds 

 had still to be found. These may be either advanced directly by the 

 Government, or from a specially authorised syndicate. The tests 

 made show that the soil throughout Gezira is uniform, that it 

 possesses sufficient alkali and phosphoric acid, but, as all Egyptian 

 and Sudanese soils, it is poor in nitrogen and organic substances. 



