CEREALS 17 



two principal reasons : one, that it can be transported 

 more easily; the other, that wheat land must be prepared 

 and sown in November or early December in the begin- 

 ning or middle of the busy cotton-picking season. !< For 

 such reasons the Sudan Plantations Syndicate, Ltd., who 

 cultivates 10,000 feddans (about 10,000 acres) in Berber 

 Province, the largest single block of cultivation in the 

 Northern Sudan, are abandoning wheat cultivation 

 entirely, and it is probable that the same thing will happen 

 in the large area to be brought under the Gezira Irriga- 

 tion Works/' 



However, the recent history of wheat production in the 

 Sudan is as follows: 



The total area under wheat in 1909-10 was 19,681 feddans 

 1910-11 26,972 



1911-12 29,193 

 i9 I2 -!3 3>39 



a record which shows a substantial and progressive 

 increase. 



The area for 1912-13 was distributed as follows: 



In the Haifa Province ... ... ... 2,563 feddans 



Dongola 

 Berber 

 Khartoum 

 White Nile 

 Blue Nile 



16,300 



8,550 



1,366 



686 



217 



The Director of Agriculture and Forests, to whom I 

 am indebted for much valuable information, tells me that 

 wheat cultivation may increase somewhat in the North 

 on the riverain estates of Khartoum, Berber, Dongola, 

 and Haifa Provinces, and will certainly do so to some 

 extent, as the basin irrigation schemes are perfected in 

 Dongola, but that owing to distance of transport and 

 the cost of production the important irrigation scheme 

 south of Khartoum is not likely to lead to an export 

 trade in wheat. But good crops can be grown there. 

 For instance, I find in the records mention of yields 

 ranging from 14 to 38 bushels per acre, the 38 bushel one 

 produced under irrigation in the Gezira (" that vast plain 

 now to be brought under irrigation in Blue Nile Pro- 

 vince "). Rust and smut frequently occur, " but not to 

 2 



