CONCLUSIONS. 51 



CONCLUSIONS. 



The standards of iiniforniity are higher with the Egyptian cotton 

 than with American short staples, because the Egyptian cotton is used 

 for superior fabrics and for other industrial purposes where strength 

 is required. The prospects of establishing a successful Egyptian 

 cotton industry in America depend on the possibility of producing a 

 uniform crop and avoiding the need of a subsequent sorting of the 

 fiber. 



In the Egyptian industry the requirement of uniformity is met, in 

 part, by a system of careful grading and sorting, made possible by 

 cheap labor not available in the United States, Inspection of the 

 fields in Eg}^pt during the early part of the growing season shows a 

 large and very general contamination with the inferior type of cot- 

 ton known as Hindi that produces only a short, sparse, white lint, 

 c|uite unlike that of the true Eg^'ptian cotton. 



The claim that the Hindi cotton is all removed from the field at the 

 time of thinning the plants is not wan-anted by the facts, for tlie 

 Hindi type and obvious hybrid forms are to be found in nearly all 

 the fields, often in Considerable proportions, sometimes more than 10 

 per cent of the total number of plants. Removal of the Hindi plants 

 is practiced only at the period of thinning and very seldom results in 

 any complete elimination of the Hindi cotton from the fields. 



The injury caused by the Hindi contaminations is not limited to 

 the proportion of Hindi plants and obvious hybrids that were counted 

 in the fields. Many plants not readily distinguished as Hindi hybrids 

 at earlier stages of growth, give later indications of hybrid nature 

 in white flowere, pale-green bolls, or sparse, inferior lint, or in relative 

 or complete sterility. The Egyptian system of roguing the plants 

 only at the time of thinning would not effect a complete elimination 

 of the Hindi cotton, even if it were generally applied. 



An increase of the Hindi contamination is popularly supposed to 

 have taken place in Egypt, in spite of the selection that has been 

 directed against it. Such an increase would be able to cause a serious 

 decline in the yield as well as in the quality of the Egyptian crop, 

 quite independent of other possible causes of deterioration that are 

 supposed to explain the lessened production of the Egj^ptian fields, 

 such as diminished fertility of the soil, rise of the water level in the 

 soil, plant diseases, and insect pests. 



The supposed increase in the proportion of Hindi cotton may jjrove 

 to be due to the naked seeds that permit a more rapid absorption of 

 water and a more prompt germination than fuzzy seeds. Prompt 

 germination would allow the Hindi seedling plants to make more 

 rapid gi'owth in the earlier stages and thus gain an advantage over 

 Egyptian seedlings in the same hill. It is also jjossible that the 



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