420 



equal to twenty-four dollars in gold. As an acre of land in Mansanali yields 

 an average of tour cantars, about 400 pounds, the expense of raising one cantar, 

 according to tlie foregoing statement, will amount to six dollars, or six cents per 

 pound." 



The question whether Egyptian cotton will maintain its quality and its full 

 product per acre when cultivated in this country, can only he decided by actual 

 tiial. It depends upon many conditions other than the chemical constituents 

 of the soil, but these may be some guide. As is well known, the fibre of the 

 cotton plant contains a very small proportion of inorganic matter derived from 

 the soil, say about 10 pounds to a bale of 450 or 500 pounds; the removal of 

 the fibre is therefore of little consequence, and is not exhaustive. The seed, 

 however, which in Egypt bears about the same proportion to the fibre as in 

 this country, viz., about three to one, draws very largely upon the soil, the 

 ciiemical iiigredients supplied from the soil being about four per cent, of the 

 weight in this country, and I suppose elsewhere, consisting mainly of phosphate 

 of lime and phosphate of potassa. Thus, for every 500 pounds of cotton fibre 

 there are 1,500 pounds of seed, and four per cent., or 60 pounds of the seed, 

 consists of inorganic matter furnished by the soil : of this GO pounds 37 are 

 phosphate of lime, and 19 phospliate of potassa. 



So far as I can find the data for comparing the chemical constituents of the 

 soil, our cane-brake and river bottom lands are richer in phosphates than the 

 Nile mud. 



The A^alue of cotton seed for the production of oil and cake for feeding cattle 

 is so well understood in Egypt as to cause it to bear a higher price per bushel 

 than wheat, and if some action is not taken for utilizing the seed of cotton raised 

 upon our uplands in a better manner than heretofore, it is quite evident that 

 upland must soon become exhausted under cotton cultivation ; our bottom 

 lands are doubtless inexhaustible. 



I hope that especial pains will be taken to test the value of Egyptian cotton 

 in Texas. The very finest specimen of cotton I have ever seen was raised 

 from Egyptian seed upon the coast of Texas. A large portion of Western 

 Texas has a climate more like that of Egypt than any other section of this 

 country, being comparatively free from rain, yet possessing a fine moist soil, 

 kept in good condition by the rivers and springs flowing from the far interior 

 mountains. 



As very many of our best varieties of green-seed cotton have been produced 

 from seed imported from Mexico, it may be that we shall now add a valuable 

 long-stapled, black-seed variety for cultivation in the interior by this importa- 

 tion from Egypt. I hope you wiii next year import some black seed from 

 Brazil and from the high lauds of P('ru. 



E. A. 

 Hon Isaac Newton. 



THE DEPARTMENT LABORATORY. 



The chemical laboratory of this department, now in charge of Dr. Thomas 

 Antisell, is in working order, and in order to make it more extensively useful 

 and available for the advancement of agriculture th(; following outline of the 

 nature of the objects which it is hoped to accomplish by its assistance is ap- 

 pended. 



WORK PERFORMED IN THE LABORATORY, 



The prosecution of extended and trustworthy researches in various subjects 

 connected with agricultural chemistry, such as — 



1. The determination of the food or manufacturing value of substances of 



