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which he has achieved is really remarkable. The cotton he 

 originally took had no type or character connected with it at 

 all, but now in going through the fields which have resulted 

 from the seed produced by Mr. McCall, you can see that each 

 plant is of a distinct type, and that the bolls do not have the 

 haphazard shapes they used to have, but all have one peculiar 

 shape. These facts indicate that there is great benefit in the 

 selection begun by Mr. McCall in Nyasaland. In connection 

 with the British Cotton Growing Association, we handle most 

 of the cotton Mr. McCall has been producing in his experi- 

 ments, and most of the samples sent home for examination 

 show that much can be done in the way of improving cotton 

 by selection experiments as carried out by Mr. McCall. I am 

 sure that if such a system were carried out more generally, 

 not only by Departments of Agriculture, but by individual 

 planters, very much could be done towards making cotton a 

 success where it is not a success at present. Much, of course, 

 depends upon climate, insect pests, soils, and various other 

 things over which the planter thinks that he has no sort of 

 control ; but if he were to carry out this system for a series of 

 years, I am sure that much practical value would result 

 from it. 



The CHAIRMAN : Gentlemen I regret that I have not been 

 able to be present during the reading and discussion of the 

 various important papers that have been communicated to this 

 Congress. I need hardly say that all matters connected with 

 the improvement of cotton production, and especially Egyptian 

 cotton, are of very real interest to me, and it gives me great 

 satisfaction to have arrived here in time to preside while refer- 

 ence has been made, in one of the papers we have just heard 

 read, to the problems connected with the progress of cotton 

 cultivation in the valley of the Nile, with which I have been 

 so closely associated during the past few years. 



I think we may claim that both as regards relative yield and 

 quality Egypt has maintained the premier position for many 

 years amongst cotton-producing countries. Since 1821, when 

 this cultivation was commenced by the first Khedive in Egypt, 

 it is a very interesting study to follow the evolution of the 

 different characteristic types of cotton which have proved to 

 be specially adapted to the climatic and soil conditions of the 

 valley and delta of the Nile. Unfortunately, deterioration 

 invariably sets in after a certain period of years, and scientific 

 research has to be continuously employed with a view to re- 

 creating those types of cotton that have given the name and 

 fame to Egyptian cotton which it so rightly bears. 



The successful development of an agricultural product such 



