66 COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 



the time between the waterings, almost to the beginning of the crop, 

 the soil should be repeatedly worked with the hand hoe in order 

 to loosen the surface and to remove the weeds, which are very 

 injurious to the cotton ; care must be taken that in this work the 

 young roots of the cotton plant are not injured. Hoeing fry hand in 

 the glare of the sun is a tedious work, and requires many workers, 

 as one to two people can hoe only one feddan per day. With the 

 ridge cultivation of Egypt three hoeings are generally given, and in 

 the process of each hoeing a little of the earth is taken from the 

 opposite ridge, with the effect that finally the cotton plants stand on 

 the centre of the ridges. 



When the plants are fully developed no further hoeing is done. 



Pruning the Cotton. In order to improve the formation and the 

 ripening of the bolls cotton plants have been pruned in many coun- 

 tries after they have reached a certain height. In North America 

 people are, on the whole, against this practice, but in Egypt particu- 

 larly good crops have been obtained through it in several cases. 

 The pruning is advised when the plants grow too quickly, as in 

 Upper Egypt, and in those districts where cold and rain are apt to 

 put an early end to the vegetation. But the practice of pruning is 

 not generally followed in Egypt. The average height of the Egyp- 

 tian cotton plant is about 120 cm., but occasionally it reaches a 

 height of 4 m., this is no doubt in, such cases where the strain of 

 its forefather, the tree-cotton, breaks out ; the general development 

 of the cotton plants in an Egyptian field is much more even and 

 denser than in America, and the different Egyptian varieties are so 

 much alike in appearance, with the exception of the Hindi, that they 

 are difficult to be distinguished even when planted side by side of one 

 another. 



Protecting Plants. For the protection against cold, sand- 

 storms, and the dust of the roads, Gambo Hemp Hibiscus canna- 

 binus (Arabic, Til) is planted in Egypt at the same time as cotton. 

 The hemp is sown round the outside of the fields at a distance of 

 22 cm. from each plant; the hemp hedge serves also as a boundary. 

 At the end of September or beginning of October the hemp plants, 

 which by that time make a thick hedge, are cut down, and after 

 roasting in water they supply a fibre which is used for ropes and 

 similar objects. 



Cotton Crop. The flowering period begins about 100 days after 

 sowing, and the fields with their shrubs of l|m. to 2m. in height, then 

 afford a beautiful aspect ; the flower of the Egyptian cotton is yellow, 

 it becomes gradually darker, and before falling off it is dark 

 red. Between the flowering and the boll ripening 45 days elapse. 



As all the bolls do not ripen simultaneously they must be 

 plucked in different stages. The crop begins in Upper Egypt at the 

 end of August or the beginning of September. In the Delta, when 

 the weather is favourable, the crop commences about September 

 10th, but mostly at the end of September or at the beginning of 

 October, and continues right into December, consequently the period 

 of vegetation, from sowing to the harvest, lasts six to eight months 

 (on an average seven months), to which two months must be added 

 for the picking season. 



