COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 67 



The average number of bolls on one cotton plant, on average 

 soil, is about 65, on particularly good soil about 125. Indeed, one 

 sometimes come across plants which have even 300 bolls, although 

 these do not all get ripe. 



The picking of the crops begins as soon as a sufficient number 

 of bolls have burst open, but as the expenses of picking are lower 

 when there is a large lot of open bolls, the picking is usually delayed 

 as long as possible. Care must be taken in this regard that the 

 quality of the lint is not severely injured by rain or thick foggy 

 weather, when the lint is laid bare through the bursting of the 

 capsules. The valuable quality of Egyptian cotton suffers most 

 easily through unfavourable weather conditions. It should further 

 be remembered that with certain varieties of cotton the lint easily 

 falls out of the opened capsules and becomes dirty. In the sowing 

 and weeding of the fields children are often used ; at picking time 

 all and everybody has to help, and high wages are offered. Women 

 and children are especially skilled and careful in the picking. A 

 boy will pick in a day 301bs. to 501bs. , whilst a man cannot pick 

 more than lOOlbs. 



On account of the heavy dews picking cannot be carried on in 

 the morning, and shortly after 5 o'clock in the afternoon it gets too 

 dark for this work. 



The first picking, which begins about three to nine days after a 

 watering, gives the best cotton, and represents about 50 per cent, of 

 the total crop. After picking, a watering is given immediately, and 

 in about three or four weeks later, therefore mostly in October, the 

 second picking takes place, giving about 35 per cent, of the whole 

 crop. After this picking another watering is supplied, and about 

 three weeks later, in November, the third picking is done, resulting 

 in the remaining 15 per cent, of the crop; the quality of this pick- 

 ing is usually inferior. The lint of the third picking is not mixed 

 with the first two pickings, but is sold separately. Some planters 

 pick again towards the end of November or the beginning of Decem- 

 ber, but these fourth and fifth pickings have only a low value. 



In the first picking, when the cotton is plentiful, the planter 

 needs to pay only a small wage ; in the second picking the price for 

 the same weight is already a half as much again as in the first, and 

 the price is doubled in the third picking. About 8 okas at 1 J kgs. of 

 the first picking, 6 okas of the second, and 4 okas of the third will 

 be picked for 1 P.T. 



Picking requires not only skill and speed, but also attention, 

 in order that no unripe and poor lint is collected, and that the plants 

 are not injured or broken down. Bolls which have shed and where 

 the lint has become dirty must be collected separately ; this cotton 

 is mixed and ginned with " Scarto. " 



Ten to fifteen pickers on large plantations are under one over- 

 seer, and each has to pick two rows of cotton shrubs. With great 

 speed they grip hold, with both hands, the opened bolls in such a 

 manner that the wooden shell remains on the plant, then they remove 

 dry leaves and parts of the capsules which at times adhere to the 

 lint. 



The lint is thrown by the pickers into their smock, which has 

 been gathered up into the shape of a sack. On a word of command 



