PEEVALENCE OF HINDI COTTON IN EGYPT. 21 



Upper E^ypt. (See Table I.) The idea of Hindi cotton seemed to 

 be more common about Tanta, but no indication of a serious effort 

 to eradicate the Hindi type from the fields could be ijathered from 

 native cultivators. They are willing to pull out the Hindi plants 

 rather than the Egyptian at the time that the hills are thinned down 

 to the usual two plants, but have no idea of destroying any more 

 plants after the thinning has been done. One very zealous native 

 showed interest to the extent of pulling up some of the Hindi plants 

 that were pointed out to him, where there was an Egyptian plant in 

 the same hill. But when there Avere two Hindi plants together in a 

 hill he would pull up only one. Nor could he be induced to sacrifice 

 any of the Hindi individuals that stood by themselves, although he 

 believed (as was afterward learned) that a Government inspection 

 was being made. The Egyptian Government sends entomological 

 insiDCctors through the fields to guard against outbreaks of the 

 Egyptian bollworm. 



Beni-Suef is considered the chief center of cultivation of the 

 Ashmuni cotton, this variety being now confined largely to Upper 

 Egypt. Inspection of fields in this locality on June G, 1910, showed 

 a general prevalence of Hindi and great lack of uniformit}' in other 

 respects, though not as great nor as obvious as in experiments with 

 this variety in Arizona. There is the same tendency to red spots at 

 the base of the leaves, which is recognized as a mark of this variety 

 to distinguish it from Mit Afifi, Jannovitch, and other more care- 

 fully selected varieties. The more general tendency to the red spot 

 may be a result of a more general contamination with the Hindi 

 type of cotton. 



A special count was made at Beni-Suef to learn the extent of 

 Hindi contamination as indicated by the presence of the distinct 

 red spot at the base of the leaf. This included true Hindi plants, 

 obvious hybrids, and all other plants that would have been considered 

 as having too red a callus for varieties of Egj'ptian cotton other than 

 Ashmuni. Of 213 plants examined for the color of the callus 133 

 had the callus green or only slightly tinged with red, as usual in 

 Egyptian cotton, while 80 plants were noted as having the callus 

 distinctly red, as in the Hindi cotton. 



In the oasis of Eayum still less attention seems to be paid to the 

 Hindi cotton than about Beni-Suef. Native cultivators knew that 

 some of the plants produced inferior cotton, but did not claim to be 

 able to distinguish them except by the white flowers. There was evi- 

 dently no intention of pulling out au}^ of the white-flowered plants. 

 The variety planted at Fayum was not considered to be Ashmuni, 

 but was merely called Beladi, or " native,"' cotton. 



Other countings of Hindi were made in the Beladi cotton at Siut. 

 Cotton is not regularly planted about Siut, but experiments are 



210 



