SUDAN COTTON.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18233, 18 November 1924, Page 2

SUDAN COTTON.

PROGRESS OF BRITISH ENTERPRISE. The important engineering works approaching completion in the AngloEgyptian Sudan, are referred to in an article on "Cotton Growing in the British Empire," by Mr L. G, Killby, secretary to the Empire Cotton GrowiiiT Association, in the quarterly review of that Association.

He describes the cotton-growing project in the Gezireh Plain as of the first importance to the British industry, 'lhe area comprises about three million acres suitable for cotton. The main work is the building of the dam, over two miles long, on the Blue Kile to hold the water. This dam will give a storage capacity of about 500,000 million gallons. Mr Killby says that for the present this dam will only be used for the development of 800,000 acres of which one-third will be tinder cotton each year. "Ef,vpt is extremely nervous as to her water supply, and the Sudan Government has consented to this arrangement whereby the water to be stored by means of the dam at Makwar shall be limited to enough for the irrigation of the present area. ' Probably this restriction would be withdrawn" (Mr Killby observes) "if compensation water could be provided for Egypt by the construction of a dam on the White \ile. "Besides the dam itself there are some 850 miles of canals to be constructed. The work of canalisation has made good progress, and it is anticipated that water for 100,000 ;acres of land under cotton will be available by July, 1925. Meanwhile, four pumpjn<r stations are at work irrigating some 20 000 ficres of cotton land, all within the area of 300,000 acres already described. The completion of the Gezireh irrigation scheme will open a new era in the economic history of the Soudan." Another important project is the development of the Kassala area, where cotton is grown in the delta of the River Gash It is estimated that within fifteen years from the opening of the Blue Nile irrigation scheme, the Sudan may be expected to produce one million bales of cotton.