294 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



Egyptian cotton culture. — During the past year observations 

 have been made on the methods of cotton culture employed in Egypt. 

 The contamination of the Kgyplinn cotton witli an inferior type 

 called Hindi involves extra labor and expense to sort out the inferior 

 fiber before ginning. Inspection of a large number of cotton fields 

 in Egypt shows that the Hindi contamination is large and very 

 generally distributed. The Egyptian crop as a whole is much more 

 diverse than the improved strains of Egyptian cotton that have been 

 developed by the Bureau of Plant Industry in Arizona. The uni- 

 formity of the Arizona Egyptian cotton may be expected to give it a 

 place in the market without the need of sorting the fiber. 



Comparison of the methods of cotton culture used in Egypt shows a 

 wide divergence from those employed in the United States. Abund- 

 ance of cheap labor enables hand work to be used exclusively in the 

 cultivation and irrigation of the crop. Closer planting makes possible 

 the growing of larger numbers of plants and at the same time induces 

 earlier fruiting. The plants produce fewer vegetative branches and 

 the harvest is more easily gathered. Though the Egyptian system as a 

 whole is not to be imitated under our conditions, its advantages are to 

 be given careful consideration in developing new methods of cultiva- 

 tion for this crop. 



Value of first-generation cotton hybrids. — Further experiments 

 with first-generation hybrids between Upland and Eg3q3tian cottons 

 indicate that such hybrids haA'e a much wider range of adaptation to 

 external conditions than the parent stocks, in addition to their abil- 

 ity to produce a larger crop of superior fiber. In the season of 1910 

 first-generation hj^brids have shown their ability to continue to grow 

 and to produce flowers and fruit under circumstances that seriously 

 interfered with the development of the parent sorts planted in ad- 

 jacent rows. This greater hardiness increases the prospect of utiliz- 

 ing first-generation cotton hj^brids for commercial production, if means 

 can be discovered for producing sufficient quantities of hybrid- seed. 

 The good qualities of the first-generation hybrids are not preserved 

 in later generations. The practical value of such h3^brids seems to be 

 limited to the possibility of utilizing the superior first generation. 



Cross-fertilization in priisiitive types of wheat. — The habits of 

 a recently discovered wild type of wheat have been studied in Pales- 

 tine and compared with those of domesticated wheat and of wheat 

 escaped from cultivation. Adaptations for cross-fertilization were 

 found in the wild wheat and indications of the same habit in primitive 

 stocks of the domesticated species grown in the same district. The 

 anthers of some flowers are exserted before the shedding of the pollen, 

 and, conversely, in some flowers the glumes spread apart so that pollen 

 is admitted before the anthers mature. These facts indicate that the 

 habit of strict self-fertilization found among our cultivated varieties 

 of wheat does not represent an original ancestral condition. Analo- 

 gies with other plants suggest that eventual decline in vigor, fertility, 

 and disease resistance may be expected in varieties that are limited 

 to self-fertilization. No indications of rust or other diseases were 

 found among the cross-fertilized wild wheat. 



Acclimatization of diverse types of wheat. — A very wide ran^e 

 of diversity is shown in some of the primitive types of wheat culti- 

 vated in arid subtropical districts in Palestine. The native wheat 

 fields produce excellent crops, but the individual plants show a wide 



