The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-08

region where the rainfall is sufficient for regular crops. Still further south the country has more nain than is needed; and in the west are great areas fitted for stock rearing
 Take, for instance, the country along the Abysslnian border and that which lies between the White and Blue Niles. Those regions have been built up in the same manner as Egypt; and they contain all the rich fertilizing materials which have made the lower Nile valley one of the granaries of the world. The only differ ence is that the Egyptian soil, by the cultivation and watering of thousands of years, has been leached of it's best fer tilizing clements; while the soil of the Gezireh, as the region I have referred to Is called, has hardly been touched. In deed, the plain between the White and Blue Niles is so rich that if water is put upon it, it will produce four or five crops every year, and that for many years In succession. We have millions of acres of such soil; and they only await the hand of man to bring them into the worlds markets as live commercial factors
 Corn and Wheat Belt of the Sudan.
 What kind of crops can be raised in that country your excellency?" I asked.
 Almost anything that Is now produced in Egypt,' was the reply. 'The Gezlreh is already growing a great deal of durra a mllet whose seed forms. the chief food of the natives. It produces an excellent hard wheat and also maize. As it is now that plain is the chief granary of htis part of the world. It raises so much that when the season is good, the crops are more than the people consume and at such times the grain is stored away in great pits. l have seen durra pits 40 feet deep and about 50 feet in diameter. They are to be found in about almost every village: and, at ordinary times, are kept full of grain for fear of famine. While the mahdi reigned his soldiers robbed the durra pits. and the result was that whole communities were wiped out by star vation..
 New Railroads and Irrigation.
 But if the bad years eat up the good ones, where is the Sudan to get it's grain for export?" l asked
 That will come by irrigation and better transportation. As it is now the people rely upon the rainfall, which is not sure. In the future that country can be irri- gated by the two Niles, and that with out diminishing the supply of water re- quired for Egypt. Then the land will have water all the year round Improved methods of cultivation will enormously increase the crops. At present the na- tive merely walks over the ground after a rain and stirs it up with stick, while his wife or child comes behind dropping the seeds and covering them with their feet. After planting nothing is done until two months later, when the crop Is ready for reaping. Ill
 "As to transportation, everything is brought to the river on donkeys or cam els, which eat their heads off on the way, and it has to come down the Nile on boats at high freight We hope to soon build a railroad into the Gezireh which will give it an outlet to the Red sea and there will be other roads branching off from that, furnishing transportation fla cilities for the whole country
 But is the region between the White and Blue Niles the only country you have where grain can be raised?''
 By no means. We can raise grain m nearly every province. There are grain areas in the south and in the west The Bahr e Ghazal an immense country on the northern edge of the Congo water shed, will raise grain, and there are many vegions along the rivers in the north which will produce enormous crops when the water is put upon them."
 Where Cotton May Be King.
 How about cotton?''
 q see no reason why the Sudan should not eventually be one of the chief cotton countries of the globe. We are exper- imenting with it in all the provinces and are meeting with great success. The land betWaan tho White and PIue Nilac r1icnt