The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-29

l understand that 1t was given him by the government at a low rate in con- sideration of his developing it. It will cost, with it's improvements, only a few dollars per acre, and when the wa ter Is put upon 1t. it should be worth more than $200 per acre, and 1t will then rent for enough to pay a good interest on that sum. Thirty thousand acres at $200 per acre means S6,000 900. and this, 1 am assured, Is not an over estimate of it's probable value. if 1t can be brought under cultivation.
 l met MT. Hunt in New York shortly before. I left for Africa. He tn en hoped to be in Egypt at the time of my visit, and asked me to call upon him at his plantation. He met with an accident, however, which kept him in the United States longer than he had intended. l asked him some questions about his plantations tn en, but he had little to say. He Is modest in talking about himself. and the information l have given here Is not from him. I find that he has the respect and esteem of every one here, and the general opinion is that he will succeed I am told he is a large owner Of lands in the sub urbs of Khartum. About three or four years ago he bought so acres just out side the town, paying $100 or $160 per acre for 1t. The total cost was under S10 ,0O0. That land Is rapidly increas- ing in value, and is said to be now worth anywhere from one quarter to one-half million dollars. Angelo Capato tells me that he is auth orized to offer MT. Hunt s200, 900 for it as a whole, but, he adds, MT. Hunt will probably keep it and develop it upon his own lines as new addition to the city of khartum.
 Sal la.
 Speaking of the cotton of the sudan, visited an odd street in Omdurman yesterday devoted to selling the native product
 The chief cotton market of this region consists of many little sheds covered with mats facing a dirt road. It Is sit uated not far from the center of the city of Omdurman, and there are several thousand acres of mud huts reaching out on all sides of 1t. Both the sheds and the streets are filled with cotton. The cotton is brought in in bags of mating. and is sold just as it Is when picked from the plants. The samples are dis played in flat round baskets, each of which holds perhaps a busnel and when carried away it Is put up in bags and not in bales. A great part of 1t goes to the native weavers who turn it into cloth. using the smallest factories one can imagine.
 Not far from the street where the cot ton is sold 1 found little factory, which put the raw material through all the processes and turned 1t into native cloth. The establishment consisted a half dozen mud huts, shut off from the street by a mud wall, which, with the huts, formed court. In the court a dozen black skinned women were sitting on mats on the ground, ginning and spin ming, while the weaving went on in the huts at. the back. The gin was some what like clothes wringer, save that the rolls were about as big around as the ordinary candle, and that the whole machine was so small that 1t could have fitted into peck measure. One woman turned the machine while another put In the cotton and picked out the seeds as they failed to go through. Near the gin sat two women who were snapping the line with bowstrngs to separate the flores, and further over there were a half dozen others, sitting cross-legged, and spinning the lint Into yarn by hand.
 I went to the mud huts at the back and looked in at the weavers. They were black boys and men, who sat be- fore rude looms on the edge of holes in the ground. The looms were so made that they could be worked with the feet, the shuttles being thrown back and forth by hand The latter moved through the cloth with a whistling noise, and this was about the only sound to be heard. The cloth turned out Is very good. It is well woven, soft and brings good prices. It's wearing qualities are better than