10 HINDI COTTON IN EGYPT. 



back to a single superior individual of two or three generations 

 before." 



In the Eg3'ptian system of cotton culture no attempt seems to be 

 made to imitate the methods of the Sea Island planters. Even less 

 consideration is given to selection than in the Upland-cotton industry 

 of the United States. While very few planters of Upland cotton have 

 been accustomed to select their own seed, it has at least been possi])le 

 for them to buy seed of selected stocks of many of the I^j)land 

 varieties, whereas planters in Egypt do not apj^ear to ha\e any 

 recognized source of supply from which to secure uniform stocks of 

 seed of the Egyptian varieties free from the Hindi contamination. 

 Differences between the seeds of the Hindi and the Egyptian cotton 

 enable a selection to be made, even after ginning, but it seems evident 

 from the condition of the fields in Egypt that a considerable quantity 

 of Hindi seed nuist be planted and that many Hindi plants are 

 allowed to grow to maturity and so to maintain the contamination.'' 



The advantage that the individual planter might gain by a careful 

 and persistent selection of his own seed is difficult to realize under 

 the Egyptian system of selling the seed cotton to the ginner. There 

 is also a custom of exchanging seed between different villages on the 

 tlieory that better yields can be obtained in this way. Thus growers 

 of Mit Afifi cotton near Mansurah obtain their seed from Kefir Zeyat, 

 between Tanta and Alexandria, a place that is commonly supposed 

 to produce seed of a superior quality. Such exchanges of seed are 



"Webber, II. J. liiiproveinent of Cotton by Seed Selection, Yearbook ol' tbe 

 Department of Agriculture for 1902, p. 374. 



^ " Tbe seed reserved for sowing is passed tbrongb special riddles, wbicb re- 

 move small and dead seed; purity can not be obtained by tbis means, but merely 

 a better looking sample ; that is to say, as far as general apiiearance is con- 

 cerned, the sample may be excellent, but closer examination reveals the pres- 

 ence of seed not true to variety. Small cultivators do not, as a rule, trouble 

 even to secure the best seed which is prociu-able, but content themselves with 

 the employment of that resulting from the ginning of common qualities of all 

 pickings, regardless of origin and purity. Were this seed purchased at a 

 low price it would provide no excuse for such a short-sighted policy, but even 

 this is not the case, the price paid to the village nierchnnt being, as a rule, 

 considerably higher than that for which the better qualities could be obtained. 



" In order to overcome this difficulty, the Khedivial Agricultural Society, in 

 conjunction with the Agricultural Banli, distributes annually to small culti- 

 vators the best seed obtainable at cost price, tlie value of wliicli is collected at 

 the end of the following cotton season. 



" It must l)e remarked, however, that the seed so distributed is merely the 

 best that can be i)rocured. 



"That it is vastly sui>erior to that which in tlic abs(Mi((> of such a system 

 of disti'ibuting would be ciiiploycd is wilhout doubt. At the same time this 

 system does nothing to actually improve tlie seed." (See Foaden, G. P., "The 

 Selection of Seed Cotton," Yearbook of the Khedivial Agricultural Society, 

 190.^), p. 122.) 

 210 



