COTTON IN EGYPT AND THE SUDAN. 77 



natives have the tendency to irrigate too much when there is plenty 

 of water, so that the drainage canals become choked. But the 

 decrease in yield also took place on higher situated plantations 

 where artificial drainage does not come into question ; it is true, in 

 Upper Egypt the average crop has not decreased. 



(12) Fraudulent mixing. The falling off in quality was partly 

 attributable to the increasing practice of small native dealers in 

 Lower Egypt, who were in the habit of mixing cheap Ashmouni 

 seed cotton from Upper Egypt with Mitafifi ; these two kinds were 

 ginned together, and the lint was sold as Mitafifi. The further 

 effect was that the small fellah used this mixed Afifi seed for sowing 

 in the Afifi districts. The Government considered measures for the 

 prevention of this fraudulent mixing, for it is said that latterly as 

 much as one-eighth of the entire crop of Upper Egyptian cotton 

 had been used for this fraudulent admixture, and in the spring of 

 1912 a law was passed, according to which the transport of 

 unginned cotton between Upper and Lower Egypt was permitted 

 only with a written permit of the Agricultural Department, the 

 boundary being near to Rodah. In cases of contravention the 

 cotton will be confiscated by the Government, and money fines and 

 imprisonment were imposed. The Government may at any time 

 stop this transport altogether. It is true that the mixing of cotton 

 from Upper and Lower Egypt has f)een stopped through this law, 

 but in Damanhour, the place most noted on account of its fraudulent 

 practices, one has found means to circumvent the law, by adding in 

 the place of the Ashmouni some 20 to 25 per cent, of the much inferior 

 " Okr " cotton from the districts of Rosetta and Fena, which is a 

 species of cotton coming from a perennial plant. 



(13) The suggestion has been thrown out that the climate of 

 Egypt had changed, but observations at the chief meteorological 

 stations do not prove this. 



In any case, the explanation of the deplorable decline may have 

 been caused by a combination of circumstances, differing according 

 to the varying circumstances of several districts. 



So far, the causes of the poor crop in 1909 and those of the 

 good crop in 1910 are not definitely known. Carelessness of the 

 Egyptian population plays a prominent part, and it must be feared 

 that the good crop of 1910 has driven away once more all cares for 

 the future, although the improvement of affairs in 1910 was partly 

 attributable to outside factors, for example, the unfavourable cotton 

 crop in North America. 



A higher average yield of the Egyptian crop must still be aimed 

 at, and at the same time an extension of the cultivation of the 

 better kinds of cotton. 



