68 COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 



the pickers run to a previously marked spot at the side of the field, 

 loosen their girdles, and shake the cotton on strips of sacking which 

 are spread on the ground. Whilst the pickers are again working 

 in the field several men pick out from the heap of collected cotton 

 the inferior lint and impurities, and fill the good cotton in large 

 bags into which it is pressed by a man who gets inside and stamps 

 his feet on the cotton. Finally, these bags, which weigh about 

 4001bs., are sewn up and sent to the warehouse. 



Large planters spread the picked cotton for about four to five 

 days out on terraces, and expose it to the open air, which also gives 

 an opportunity of picking out the poor and badly-stained cotton. 



Before the last picking is undertaken berseem is usually sown in 

 between the standing cotton plants, and when the finished cotton 

 stalks have been removed the field is rolled in order that the w r ater 

 can cover the clover evenly. 



Otherwise the finished stalks are allowed to stand for a little 

 time, they are then pulled up, and the dry stalks are used for fuel, 

 especially for the numerous steam pumps. Only on rare occasions, on 

 the poor soils of the Delta and in the provinces of Minieh Assiut, and 

 Beni-Suef, where a more careful cultivation does not pay, are the 

 plants cut back even to-day in order to yield another crop in the 

 next year ; the height of the stems that remain standing has been 

 reduced from 30 cm. to 10 cm. by a decree of 1911, in order to 

 render the hibernation of the boll-worm difficult. 



INJURIOUS COTTON PESTS OF EGYPT. 



As in all artificial collections of a species of plant, useful to 

 mankind, so in cotton plantations the biological equilibrium becomes 

 disturbed, and the consequence is an increase of pests. In the cotton 

 fields of Egypt a large number of such pests, principally belonging 

 to the animal kingdom, but also those of a fungoid character, cause 

 more or less damage, though probably less than in North America, as 

 through the frequent waterings, the glare of the sun, and the 

 repeated hoeing of the soil, a large portion of the pests are being 

 killed, others die off through the rotations of crops. The change 

 from a three to a two years' crop rotation favours the survival and 

 distribution of the injurious cotton pests ; they are likewise encour- 

 aged through too freely watering and consequent dampness, fog, 

 and, finally, through the fact that there is no frost in Egypt which 

 might make their hibernation impossible. The strong heat of Upper 

 Egypt prevents the distribution of the boll-worm. 



The most dangerous are two butterflies from the owl family, 

 viz., the Prodenia littoralis and the Earias insulana, the caterpillars 

 of which frequently destroy crops in whole districts. 



The caterpillar Prodenia littoralis is called in Egypt the ''cotton 

 worm " ; it comes from a small moth which first seriously appeared 

 in 1877, attacks besides cotton also the Egyptian clover, wheat, 

 barley, maize, and potatoes; it has yearly about seven generations, 

 each living about 30 to 40 days. The moth lays the first eggs, each 

 time several hundreds, in the berseem, goes to the cotton when this 

 has developed, in the middle of May ; it fastens its eggs upon the 

 underside of nly one or two leaves ; the caterpillars which come 

 from these eggs feed chiefly on leaves, and distribute themselves 



