25 



of these cultivators sow it under Ministerial supervision, and the 

 Ministry retains the right of purchase of the produce from this. In 

 the remainder of the Grade IV crop, and subsequently, control ceases, 

 and the amount of controlled seed at the disposal of the Ministry is 

 thus limited to that from the controlled portion of the Grade IV crop, 

 or enough to sow some 500-600 fedddns. 



This area is a mere fraction even of that which is sown to the 

 Ashmuni seed distributed by the Commercial Section of the Ministry 

 over 100,000 fedddns in 1919 and the Ministry is compelled, therefore, 

 to seek its supply from ginneries. Now if this seed, selected on 

 Mr. Bolland's scheme, is materially to affect the Ashmuni crop, and 

 that is presumably the only justification for the labour incurred in that 

 selection, the Ministry must check the sowings and trace the produce 

 of those crops which it finds to be sufficiently pure to the ginneries, 

 and must purchase the seed obtained from it, to form what we may term 

 a Grade V crop. Les us examine the practical aspect of this more 

 closely. . 



In a letter recently received by the Ministry, I find the following 

 remarks ; they refer to produce from the uncontrolled section of the 

 Grade IV crop : 



' The cotton was grown in two villages ; the sample from the 

 former shows a good-coloured brown Ashmuni with as good staple 

 as we have seen this season ; there are, however, streaks of lighter- 

 coloured cotton, which is curious, seeing that the seed is pure 



The latter is, however, entirely different to the first lot ; it contains 

 a short wasty cotton, and the class is barely F.G.F. It is surprising 

 that it is supposed to be the same seed, and perhaps you may be able 



to indicate the cause of deterioration." 







Again, I have examined some samples of the seed cotton of this 

 same Grade IV crop, and have found it more mixed than the majority 

 of commercial samples of Ashmuni that I have seen. In the former 

 case there is a distinct and large divergence between the produce 

 raised from two identical lots of seed ; in the latter, admixture 

 sufficient to render the produce less uniform than most of the 

 uncontrolled Ashmuni crop. 



The explanation cannot be given with certainty, since there have 

 been no independent observations of the various crops coin erned, but 

 it is probably this. In the first case, both crops are sown with the 

 controlled seed, and in one instance germinations were successful 

 and re-sowing unnecessary ; in the second instance a large proportion 

 of the crop consisted of second sowings, and these were made with 

 seed of different origin. The second case forms a parallel to the 



