530 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



encouraging the growth of this type of cotton in the United States. Attention 

 is also directed to the conditions which appear to be indispensable to its suc- 

 cessful commercial- production in this country; that is, under irrigation and in 

 the absence of the boll weevil. 



" The history of the establishment of Egyptian cotton production in the Salt 

 River Valley is believed to have more than a special or local interest, since it 

 offers a good illustration of the numerous biological, agronomic, social, and 

 economic difficulties encountered in developing a new agricultural industry and 

 furnishes .suggestions as to how these complex and diversified problems may 

 be successfully solved. That cooperation is the keynote of success has become 

 very clear in the progress of the present enterprise." Cooperation has been 

 maintained among investigators, the administrative officers of this Department, 

 growers, and manufacturers. 



"The policy of [this Department] in encouraging the production of long- 

 staple cotton on the community basis is beginning to be appreciated by manu- 

 facturers and buyers, many of whom now realize that in order to obtain year 

 after year ample quantities of cotton of unchanging character they must look 

 to localities where the farmers are organize<l to grow only one kind of cotton, 

 to prevent deterioration of the tyi>e by see<l selection, and to cla.ss and market 

 their crop as a unit." 



A list of publications bearing on Egj'ptian cotton growing in the Southwestern 

 States is appended. 



Kafir com (" dari ") from South Africa {Bui. Imp. In.<it. [So. Kensington], 

 13 (1H15), No. 3. pp. 379. 3«0).— Tins reports chemical analy.ses of white, red. 

 and mixed Kafir corn grain, showing the moisture, protein, fat, starch, fiber, 

 and ash contents. The nutritive ratio and food units of the different samples 

 are also given. 



Sun-sprouted seed potatoes, W. J. Green (Uo. Bui. Ohio Sta., 1 {1916), No. 

 1, pp. l'i-20, fif/s. 3). — This article descriJies methods of sprouting seed potatoes 

 in partial sunlight before planting. The advantages of seed potatoes so 

 sprouted are claimed as con.servntion of vitnlity and early maturity of the crop. 



Report of the officer in charge of the Prickly Pear Experimental Station, 

 Dulacca, from May 1, 1914, to April 30. 1915. .7. White-H.\ney {Ann. Rpt. 

 Dcpt. Pub. Lands Queensland, lOlIf, pp. 71-S3, pis. 15). — This is a continuation 

 of work previously noted (E. S. R., 33, p. 233). 



A list is given of the materials more or less injurious to the Dulacca pest 

 pear, comprising both soli<ls and liquids which were usefl as injection.s. sprays, 

 or vapor charges. The methods employed in the destruction of this wee<l were 

 the injection of a solid specific or of a liquid specific or solution of si^cific 

 into the second segment from the top of a branch ; the spraying of a specific 

 or a solution of specific over the aerial part of the plant by means of either an 

 ordinary spray pump or an atomizer pump; and the evolution of gas or vajwr 

 charges over the aerial parts of the plant. The conclusions drawn are as 

 follows : 



" The most effective si>ecific yet applied to the plants in the form of solid 

 injections, liquid injections, or spray, is arsenic acid (arsenic pentoxid). The 

 most effective gas treatment is produced by the fumes of arsenic trichlorid : the 

 best .season for the application of poisoning by any of the previously mentiom^l 

 methods is during the summer and early autumn. The success of the under- 

 taking is largely dependent on the rainfall prior to and after poisoning, prob- 

 ably more especially on the former." 



Experiments in the propagation of the wild cochineal insect as a parasite 

 of the pest pear have been tried, but they indicate that there is no possibility of 



