LINT AND SEED CHARACTERS OF HINDI COTTON. 11 



well calculated to joreserve and distribute the Hindi contamination. 

 Even the introduction of new, carefully selected varieties could be 

 expected to give only temporary improvement unless the whole sys- 

 tem were changed. The process of deterioration would be resumed 

 at once as a result of the crossing between adjacent fields of different 

 varieties and the exchange of seed between different localities. 



After selection is relaxed the rapidity of deterioration of a vari- 

 ety of cotton depends on two cooperating factors, variation and cross- 

 ing. Both of these factors must vary in different places, for they 

 are influenced by external conditions. When cotton is grown under 

 new or unfavorable conditions, more numerous variations appear. 

 Abundance of bees or other cross-fertilizing insects causes a more 

 rapid spreading, of variations through the stock. Relatively uni- 

 form conditions and apparent scarcity of insects may give longer 

 life to varieties in Egypt than in the United States, but the general 

 tendencies and results of deterioration seem to be quite the same." 



The history of cotton culture in Egypt shows that a succession of 

 new varieties has replaced the old at intervals of a few decades. 

 The modern Egyptian cotton industry began with the variety dis- 

 covered and popularized by Jumel, a French engineer, about 1820. 

 The Jumel cotton was replaced by the Ashmuni after 18G0, the Ash- 

 muni by the Mit Afifi about 1890, and more recent varieties, such as 

 the Jannovitch and Nubari, are now replacing the Mit Afifi. Other 

 varieties, such as the Bamieh, Gallini, Zafiri, Abbasi, Sultani, etc., 

 have either failed to gain an}^ general popularity- or have aroused 

 only temporary interest. 



LINT AND SEED CHARACTERS OF HINDI COTTON. 



The character that renders the Hindi cotton so unwelcome as an 

 element of admixture in the Egyptian stock is the much shorter and 

 coarser fiber. The Hindi fiber is also pure white in color, whereas 

 in the more popular Egj-ptian varieties the lint is a somewhat 

 creamy white, tinged with buff or brown. White-linted varieties of 

 Egyptian cotton have been cultivated to a small extent, but have 

 never become popular in P^gypt. 



The difference in the color of the lint is of nnich assistance in the 

 work of sorting out the Hindi admixture after the fiber has been 

 picked and brought to the ginning establishment. Any thorough 

 sejja ration of the inferior Hindi fiber from a white variety must be 



" Tliougli very few insects were noticed in the Ksiyiitiiin fields in .Tnne and 

 Jnly, they may be more abnndant later in the season. Halls reports l)etween 

 5 and 10 per cent of crossing, and even 25 per cent in one of his exi)erinients. 

 (See Balls, W. L., " Cross- Fertilization in Cotton," Cairo Scientitic Journal, vol. 

 2, 1908, p. 405.) 

 210 



