Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/328

 276 THE BRITISH EMPIRE : — ANGLO-EGYPTIAN SUDAN

ject (by means of the dam on the Blue Nile at Makwar, about 170 miles south of Khartum) will enable 100,000 acres to be put under cotton in a few years' time with unlimited scope for extension. Cotton area, 1919, 56,000 feddans ; crop 1919-20 estimated at 120,000 kantars. Other products include sesame, senna leaves and pods, groundnuts, dates, hides and skins, and gold. The principal grain crops are dura, a kind of millet used for making bread, and dukhn. Estimated yield of dura, 1919, 144,600 tons.

The cattle trade in the Sudan shows remarkable growth in recent years, and the number exported is increasing yearly. The reason for this is that while it is easy for the native to raise cattle, the 'Government on their part- through an efficient and well-organised Veterinary Department, is endeavour, ing to foster the trade, to eliminate cattle diseases, and to improve the quality of live-stock.

The forests which line the river banks, rich in fibres and tanning material, extend to the frontiers of Abyssinia. On the White Nile the forests contain valuable trees — the ebony tree, the gum acacia, the bamboo, and the rubber creeper. The finest gum forests are in Kordofan, and the best rubber in the Bahr el Ghazal.

Gold is the only mineral at present being successfully exploited in the Sudan, a mine being worked at Gabait.

Imports and Exports.

Year

Imports 1

Exports 2

Year

Imports J

Exports 2

1913 (pre-war)

1915.

1916 . ..

£E 2,109,476 1,704,250 2,661,468

£E 1,185,186 1,577,991 2,288,403

1917 . 191S. . 1919.

£E

3,102,117 4,024,582 4,805,745

£E 3,490,565 3.923,771 2,740,759

1 Including Government Stores.

2 Excluding re-exports, which were £E93,655 in 1913, £E130,315 in 1915, £8227,112 in 1916, ££238,616 in 1917, £E2S6,613 in 1918, £E288,S10 in 1919.

Specie (1919 imports £E23,803, re-exports £E541,875) and Transit trade (£E42,911 in 1919) are also excluded.

Summary of value of merchandise imported and exported showing countries of importation and exportation in 1918 and 1919.

Imports

Exports

Country

Abyssinia

Africa (Union of South) Arabia. . . . Congo and Uganda Egypt i.

Eritrea .... France. Great Britain. Greece. . . . Italy. . . . India and Aden Japan .... United States Other countries Postal parcels

316,429 15,400 4,827

,770,770

1,297 170,S81

(127 113,1(18

1

25,768

1919

£K

2,931,454

25.596

1,722

2,541 69S.G13

419

44,211

1918

£E 17,194

11 8, 80S

8,087,094 138,841

515,9*5

10,835

576 2.549

1919

1 Includes goods of nou-Egyptian origin imported into the Sudau vid Egypt.