178 THE COTTON PLANT IN EGYPT CHAP. 



achieved, on a crop which is worth twenty to thirty 

 millions of pounds per annum. 



Concurrently with the depreciation of yield, there had 

 also been a depreciation of quality in the chief variety 

 grown. 7 ' 15 - 82 This latter trouble was partly due to the 

 same cause, but chiefly to varietal "deterioration." 



The coincidence was extremely unfortunate, for the 

 short crops led to inilated^priccs^ which \vere_.mtQlerable 

 with a~~cfegrading quality ; the consumers, driven jto 

 experiment with inferior cottons, succeeded beyond all 

 expectation in the substitution of long-staple Upland, and 

 even of ordinary Upland, for Egyptian cotton. -Ike- 

 typical Egyptian eofcton 4ws^fclros-lost 4he -monopoly jyhich 

 it formerly -enjoyed. 



The remedies for these two troubles are now being 

 applied, f to wit, drainage and restricted irrigation in the 

 first case, together with the supply of better seed in the 

 second. With regard to seed-supply we have seen that 

 the problem is essentially the avoidance of natural crossing, 

 since "deterioration" must ensue if a single foreign 

 pollen-grain enters the pedigree. By cultivating pure 

 lines in bee-proof cages, propagating from these in 

 isolated sites, or in plots protected by related populations, 

 and by renewing continually the seed -supply of any 

 strain in this way from the laboratory through seed-farms, 

 the varieties of the future will be proof against " deteriora- 

 tion," unless mutation takes place. It cannot be too 

 strongly insisted upon, that any scheme for the intro- 

 duction of new cottons is doomed to ultimate failure unless 

 continual replacement of contaminated stocks is taking 

 place every year from the original pure strain. 5 ' 32 



^Ehe4emands of Egyptian cotton upon, the cotton- 

 breeder, 5 ' 7) 15 j^axt-Jfom-^fchisquestion of purifying and 



* Todd, J. A. 



t Lord Kitchener's Report on Egypt and the Sudan, 1912. 



