8 HINDI COTTON IN EGYPT. 



During the first years of its cultivation in Arizona the Egyptian 

 cotton produced only small yields and rather inferior fiber. After the 

 yield and quality began to improve, an undesirable amount of diver- 

 sity appeared. A stud}^ of this diversity showed that it was due in 

 part to hybridization with the common American Upland cotton, and 

 that this danger was unusually serious in Arizona when the two kinds 

 of cotton are grown in the same localit}^, owing to an unusual abun- 

 dance of wild bees. The Hindi cotton is an additional factor of 

 diversity inherent in the imported Egyptian stock, more difficult to 

 understand because not previously known in the United States. 



Experiments show that both of these sources of diversity can be 

 eliminated by a more careful system of field selection, applied early in 

 the season before the inferior plants have begun to flower, and hence 

 before they have cross-fertilized the neighboring plants. The value 

 of the Arizona Egyptian cotton and the prospects of cultivating this 

 crop on a commercial scale in the United States depend largely on 

 the degree of uniformity that can be attained in the fiber, in com- 

 parison with that of the Egyptian product. Hence, the necessity for 

 an inspection of the cotton fields of Egypt in order to determine 

 the extent of diversity in the crop as raised in that country. 



The high cost of labor in the Southwestern States forbids any 

 direct imitation of Egyptian methods, either in raising the crop or 

 in preparing it for market. Other solutions of the problems of 

 production have to be sought. The requirement of uniformity has 

 been met in Egypt by a sj^stem of careful grading of the cotton 

 after picking that would be very difficult to establish in the United 

 States, and too expensive to leave any assurance of profit for the 

 farmer even if it were established. 



The EgA^ptian cotton trade is organized on an entirely different 

 basis from the American. Instead of merely ginning and baling the 

 farmer's cotton as he brings it from tlie fields, it is the regular practice 

 of the Egyptian ginning establishments to buy the seed cotton from 

 the farmer and prepare it for the market by sorting, grading, and 

 blending. Instead of depending entirely on samples, as with Ameri- 

 can cotton, Eg3'ptian cotton is sold largely by the marks or brands 

 that are placed on the bales by the ginning establishments. Cotton 

 of the same mark is supposed to represent a definite uniform quality. 

 This is much more practicable in Egypt than it would be in most 

 parts of the United States because of the much greater uniformity of 

 climate and soil in Egypt. 



In comparison with the wide range of soils, climates, and seasonal 

 vicissitudes in the cotton-producing districts of the United States, 

 the Egyptian cotton industry gives at first an impression of com- 

 plete uniformity. Although people in Egypt supposed that cotton 

 would be more advanced in Upper Egypt than about Cairo, this did 



