fuel, engineer, assistant, native workmen, depreciation, would be about £10,000 per annum; for a 6 cbm. plant, £8,700 per annum. The total capital expenditure for an estate of 12,500 feddans, with the water output of 7 cbm. per second, according to information received by an agricultural expert in the Sudan, would be as follows: This figure is somewhat below the estimate of the irrigation department. With a 6 cbm. output of water the cost would be reduced by £5,000. GINNING. There is a small ginning factory, containing eight gins, belonging to the Gordon College, Khartoum. I heard several complaints as to the unsatisfactory way in which the gins work. The strongest complaint, however, was that these gins are not sufficient to cope with the amount of cotton coming in during the season, and that the bales pressed are of an unusually small size, which seems to be detrimental to the sale. I was told that some bales from the previous season were still lying unsold at Liverpool on account of this method of packing. I persuaded Mr. CURRIE, the principal of Gordon College, to purchase an up-to-date press, and when I left Khartoum he had already applied for tenders for the usual type of press employed in the Sudan (Shaw's). Although the Khartoum College is not supposed to enter into competition with commercial firms, still it must be admitted that an advantage will result to ginners from the fact that some natives will be trained to work these hydraulic presses, and these will be able to take positions in existing ginneries. Moreover, the demand must be met by some institution if private enterprise does not come forward. The objects of the farm are purely educational, the purpose being to instruct the farmers in Khartoum, Berber, and also the Blue Nile Province. The research farm sells the water to the natives at cost price, but they must in exchange conform to instructions laid down by the manager, Mr. E. R. SAWER, who has had practical experience in Natal and Rhodesia. The natives have shown themselves exceedingly anxious to avail themselves of the offer, and it is interesting to note how intensely interested they have become in the experimental work. Some are applying for disc ploughs and iron implements, and are conducting experiments even on their own land. IRRIGATION. The water is supplied by means of a high-speed 10-inch pump. New machines and floating pumps, with 80 horse power engine and double 12-inch pump for extension of the supply of water to the natives, will be installed shortly. The irrigation system consists of elevated "gadwals," with infiltration drains, supplemented by usual drainage; the minimum depth of drains is two metres. An exceedingly useful experiment in view of recent developments in Egypt! ROTATIONS. Cotton and wheat are planted alternately, each being followed by lubia (bean) as green manure and feeding crop, the latter being a leguminous plant. The natives have three revenue crops and one manure crop in two years, as the lubia is being ploughed into the soil. The usual experiments as regards distance in planting, time of sowing, volume of water, effect of fertilizers, cultivating (hoeing), green and stable manures, are carried on. ZEIDAB COTTON PLANTATION, Zeidab is situated 181 miles north of Khartoum and 25 miles south of Atbara; it is in the Berber Province. A con cession of 10,000 feddans was granted in 1904 to Mr. LEIGH HUNT, an American, for perennial irrigation. Mr. HUNT endeavored to cultivate a small tract by direct labor, but, as is usually the case when this method is adopted in cotton planting, failure resulted. The Sudan Plantations Syndicate, Ltd., took the concession over in 1907, when about 1,000 feddans had been brought under cultivation. There are now under cultivation : 2,800 feddans under cotton. The land is hired out to tenants, of which there are 310, each holding about 30 feddans, and about 10 feddans each are cultivated in cotton, wheat, and leguminous crops. The annual rent for cotton land charged to the natives varies from 412 P. T. to 512 P. T. according to the quality of the land; for wheat it is 258 P. T.; for leguminous crops 154 P. T. per plot of 10 feddans, including water supply. The syndicate also rents water to about 140 tenants adjoining the estate, for which a charge of 250 P. T. is made. In the appendix will be found copies of the agreements with both kinds of tenants. IRRIGATION. The rainfall is only about five inches, consequently artificial irrigation is necessary. The main canal is five miles wide in the bed, eight miles at the level of the land, and has a depth of one and one-half miles. The distributing canals are two miles in the bed, four miles at level of land. The subsidiary canals ( gadwals) are one-half mile in the bed, one and one-half miles at the level of land, from which smaller canals are taken off to irrigate plots of 10 feddans. Subsidiary canals irrigate 70 feddans. There are two installations. The first has two 30-inch Gwinn centrifugal pumps, driven by two engines of 300 horse power, made by Allen's, Bedford, each pump delivering 5,500 cbm. per hour (one and one-half cbm. per second). The other installation comprises two 30-inch Sulzer pumps, turbine driven by two 300-horse power engines of Sulzers.' These pumps deliver 5,600 cbm. per hour each. The maximum minimum about water-lift is about eight meters and the one and one-half meters. For fuel, wood is used. The cost of both installations is £42,000, the cost of canalization about £17,000, with a yearly upkeep of £600. KINDS OF COTTON GROWN. The bulk of the cotton grown at Zeidab is Nubari and Afifi, about half of each, but there are besides about 200 feddans Sakellaridis, and 70 feddans Voltos. The other varieties are Asili, Ashmouni Nyassaland, Allan's improved, Griffiths (the latter two American kinds on a small scale, in fact, only 70 feddans altogether are under American cotton). The yields over the whole estate during the last six years were three kantars, three and one-half kantars, three kantars, four kantars, one |