COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 61 



it in small quantities, not over 3 ardebs, at cost price to the small 

 planters, and the amount of the seed is encashed together with the 

 taxes, after the fellah has had his cotton crop from the seed. 



The Government has also entrusted Mr. W. Lawrence Balls, 

 who for a number of years was the botanist of the 

 Khedivial Agricultural Society, and has been transferred 

 to the Agricultural Department when this was founded, 

 with the problem of working out a system of seed breeding. A 

 well-fitted-up laboratory, with adjoining experiment and seed fields, 

 was erected in 1911 in Giseh, near the Agricultural and the Poly- 

 technic Schools. Mr. Balls had already begun in 1906 to isolate 

 really pure Egyptian cotton races according to Mendel's law of 

 heredity. This principle, which was made public as far back as 

 1865, was established by the Abbot Gregory Mendel, 

 of Bruenn, Austria (1822 to 1884), and had remained almost un- 

 noticed until the beginning of our century. Since then it has been 

 adopted into practice by several people, and forms to-day in Egypt 

 the foundation of the Government system of improvement of the 

 cotton seed. Mr. Balls carries out the breeding of pure races under 

 cages covered with fine wire-netting, which prevent the transfer of 

 the foreign pollen by bees. The pure races obtained from the 

 cages, in the selection of which particular stress is laid upon the 

 yield and early maturing properties, are to be kept separate on 

 special seed farms, and are to be planted in those districts which 

 have been proved favourable for them. 



The larger planters, too, who up to now were provided with 

 good seed through the Khedivial Agricultural Society, which obtained 

 it from the States Domains and other reliable sources, are in future 

 also to be supplied through the medium of the Agricultural Depart- 

 ment, and the four years' course which has been decided upon by the 

 Agricultural Department in agreement with the Domains and private 

 planters, will be the following : 



First year: Supply of pure seed, bred according to Mendel's pro- 

 cess on the experimental farms, to the States Domains. 



Second year: Planting of the seed obtained from the States 

 Domains by the large planters, and re-purchase of the seed thus 

 obtained. 



Third year: Planting of this seed on plantations of medium size, 

 and re-purchase of the seed of the third generation thus obtained. 



Fourth year: Sale of such seed on credit to the small peasants. 



No use to be made for sowing purposes of seed which is of this 

 last generation. 



The sale of Government seed is carried on through the Egyp- 

 tian Markets Company, and other agents, and the Government 

 intends to give the fellaheen facilities for payment of the seed. 



For the sowing in 1912 the Government distributed 40,000 

 ardebs, about one-tenth of the total requirements of Egypt, 

 and with a further extension of this method good results will 

 undoubtedly follow. 



Lord Kitchener has also given instructions that the recent dis- 

 covery of Mr. Woldemar Schuetze in Berlin, for which a patent has 

 been taken out, be examined. The invention claims to prevent a 



