Agriculture and Trade.—Over 2,500,000 ac., or fully 75% of the land under cultivation, is devoted to food crops. In Buganda plantains are the staple food : sweet potatoes are grown all over the protectorate; millet is of chief importance to the Nilotic tribes; cassava, peas and beans are other common food crops. The na tives also possess large herds of cattle—mostly humped, short horned breeds—and flocks of sheep, all of the flat-tailed species, and goats. This live stock gives rise to a large trade in hides and skins. Of crops for export cotton holds a pre-eminent place ; it is an industry entirely in the hands of the natives. Next in im portance comes coffee, grown mostly on European-owned planta tions. Formerly there was a fair trade in "wild" rubber; that died out about 1912, but plantation (Para) rubber exports began to be of value by 1918. Maize, ground nuts, simsim, chillies, tea and tobacco are among the minor crops. Cotton is grown by a multi tude of small cultivators from seed supplied by the Government, experiments favouring a "Nyasaland Upland" variety. The swampy lands of the Eastern province are particularly suitable for the crop. The cotton is ginned at a large number of small ginneries instead of, as in the Sudan and elsewhere, by a few large ginneries. Cotton exports began modestly in 19o4–o5 with the despatch of i8o cwts. cotton lint worth £236. By 1910 value of cotton ex ported had grown to 16o.000; in 1918-19 £965,000. A "boom" followed; in 1924 the cotton exported was 196,000 bales and fetched £3,486,000. Thereafter there was some decline, due mainly to adverse weather conditions and the fall in world prices, and aggravated probably by the system of small and expensive ginneries. Exports of cotton fell in value to £3,051,000 in 1926, and in 1927, when a larger area suffered from drought and the crop failed, to 11,690,00o. The crop of 1928 was about 120,000 bales.
In 1901-02, when trade returns were first compiled, the value of exports was about 150,00o—the chief articles being rubber, ivory, skins and hides. These, with some transit trade from Bel gian Congo, continued the chief commodities up to 1908-09, when the exports were valued at over 1150,000. From 1910-1i cotton became the leading export, while coffee first figured to a noticeable extent during the World War. Imports are of a very miscellaneous character, cotton goods being the largest single item. Inevitably, during the process of development, imports exceeded exports in value. Between 1904 and 1917 imports increased from L190,000 to £1,296,000. In the same period exports increased from 160,00o to £1,076,000. In 1917 a customs union was entered into with the East Africa Protectorate (Kenya Colony). Separate sta tistics for imports have not since been available, but it was soon obvious that exports exceeded imports in value. Exports had risen to £2,393,000 in 1923, and were valued at £5,096,000 in 1925. The great effect of decreased cotton output and lower prices was seen in the export figures for 1926 (13,597,000), and 1927 (12,310,0oo). But the industry was too firmly established to be
more than temporarily shaken. The cotton is sent mainly to England, India and Japan.
The mineral resources of the protectorate are but little known or developed. Since 1926 tin has been mined in the Kagera area, and it is also worked in Ankole ; copper has been found in the Ruwenzori region, and mineral oils in the neighbourhood of Lake Albert. Tin first figured in the exports in 1927, when the ore exported was worth 120,00o.
Towns and Communications.—The administrative capital is Entebbe (a throne) on a peninsula projecting into Victoria Ny anza in o° 4' N., 32° 27' E. Some 20 m. N. by E. of Entebbe is Kampala (or Mengo), the capital of Buganda. Strictly, Kampala is the name of one of seven steep hills on which the town (pop. about 6o,000) is built. The European quarters, fort, Government offices and Indian bazaar are on Nakasero hill; on Namirembe hill is the Anglican cathedral of St. Paul, replacing the cnurch de stroyed by lightning in 1910; on another hill (Rubaga) are the mission and cathedral of the Roman Catholics; on Mengo hill are the town residence of the kabaka of Buganda and the buildings of the lukiko (the Baganda parliament). On Kampala hill is the museum, and on Kasubi hill the tomb of Mtesa. The port of Kampala is Port Bell, 7 m. distant, a railway joining the two places. Of other towns the chief is Jinja, by the Ripon falls, a busy cotton and transport centre.
The protectorate is well provided with roads, which have the deserved reputation of being the best in East Africa. Access to the outer world was provided, in 1902, on the completion of the railway from Mombasa to Kisumu, on the Victoria Nyanza, and by the provision of steamers on the lake. This sufficed until the great development of the cotton trade after the World War. Meanwhile, a railway, 61 m. long, had been built (1912) through Busoga by the eastern side of an unnavigable stretch of the Nile from Jinja to Namasagali. To avoid the need to transport goods across Victoria Nyanza a railway (320 m. long, begun in 1921 and completed in 1928) was built from Nakuru, on the Mombasa Kisumu line to a point on the Busoga railway. This new railway —165 m. of which are in Uganda—became the main line. It passes through a great cotton belt, and its usefulness was increased in 1929 by the building of a railway from Jinja to Kampala (about 6o miles). By this route Uganda is in direct railway communica tion with the Indian ocean. The distance between Kampala and Mombasa is 896 miles. There are steamer services (besides the boats on Lake Victoria) on the Victoria Nile, Lake Kioga. and Lake Albert and on the Mountain Nile to Nimule. From 1920 onwards efforts were made to connect the Sudan and Uganda by air routes, and there are aerodromes at Nimule and Jinja. Motor traffic was first introduced in 1908.