44 HINDI COTTON IN EGYPT. 



careful comparison of all the parts, including the seeds and lint. A 

 complete census of the aberrant plants of a field requires too much 

 time to make it generally feasible. Moreover, the cotton in Egypt 

 was not yet far enough advanced in July, 1910, to alloAv such a study 

 to be completed. The \'isit was made at that season because the 

 vegetative characters of Hindi plants were known to be more readily 

 visible at that time. 



Counts made in a field of Ashmuni cotton raised in Arizona in 

 1909 from imported seed gave over 40 per cent of the plants showing 

 distinct departures from the normal characteristics of Egyptian 

 cotton, mostly in the direction of the Hindi. A similar diversity 

 would probably be found in some of the Egyptian fields representing 

 the same variety of cotton. With the better varieties such as Mit 

 Afifi and Jannovitch the percentage of dilute hybrids and variants, 

 as of true Hindi and obvious hybrids, is doubtless considerably less 

 though by no means a negligible quantity. 



It would probably be well within the truth to estimate that the 

 results obtained by counting would at least be doubled if they were 

 to include the later generations of hybrids and dilute crosses that 

 increase the diversity and diminish the value of the crop. Ii the 

 average of the percentages shown in the different countings of Hindi 

 l^lants be accepted as the basis of calculation, a total estimate of 

 about 12 per cent Avould represent the extent of the Hindi contamina- 

 tion that would become visible under a more careful inspection of 

 the Eg}qotian fields. Estimated even at 10 per cent, the annual 

 damage of the Hindi cotton must run well above $10,000,000, perhaps 

 even to twice that amount. It is true, of course, that any definite 

 figures must be in the nature of guesswork; they can serve only in a 

 general way to indicate the magnitude of the factor of diversity in the 

 Egyptian cotton crop. 



AVliile the cotton of the Hindi and other variant plants is not 

 altogether Avorthless, there can be no doubt that the crop as a whole 

 would be far more profitable to the farmer if all these plants were 

 destroyed, even though nothing took their places. A general diminu- 

 tion in yield is due to the infertility of many of the hybrids and 

 other aberrant plants; a general depreciation of the value of the 

 crop is due to the residiuim of inferior cotton that the sorting does 

 not remove, to the expense of the sorting, and to the relative waste 

 of labor in growing and picking the low-grade cotton. These ele- 

 ments of loss recur with every season and represent a large tax upon 

 the industry. They also represent roughly tlie advantage that Ameri- 

 can fai-mers may hope to gain by paying more effective attention to 

 the factor of selection as a means of maintaining the purity and 

 productive efficiency of varieties. 



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