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I am inclined to think that this analogy is not a true one, especially 

 in matters like agriculture. In England the farmer is educated, and 

 he appreciates the value of improved seed in crop production. He 

 himself carries out the later stages of seed production inasmuch as 

 he purchases a limited amount of pedigree seed, and, from the crop 

 produced from this, sows his entire area if the trial proves the superiority 

 of the race under the local conditions. He is thus able and willing to 

 pay a high price for pedigree seed, for the amount he has actually to 

 purchase is small. It is that ability and willingness which makes the 

 production of pedigree stock a financial proposition for the seedsman. 

 In Egypt the conditions are far different. The cultivator is uneducated 

 and even illiterate. There is no general recognition of the value of 

 pedigree stock, no willingness to pay a high price for such, and 

 consequently no encouragement for the seedsman and plant-breeder 

 on a financial basis. Government must control the seed supply not 

 only during the early stages but throughout. Not only, therefore, 

 is continuity essential in the Research Section pure and simple, but 

 that continuity must extend to the Commercial Section as well : 

 a continuity which is not likely to be fostered by widening the breach 

 between research and practice. Such continuity will, in my opinion, 

 be best maintained by the institution of a cotton committee within the 

 Ministry itself. This committee will be composed of the heads of the 

 various sections concerned with the development of cotton, and will 

 sit under the presidency of the Under- Secretary for State for Agri- 

 culture. It will deal with all matters of a general nature affecting 

 more than one section and decide all questions of principle. It must, 

 however, avoid any interference with the actual work of the individual 

 sections once the general lines of policy have been decided. The 

 decision as to what shall or shall not come before the committee 

 must rest with the Under-Secretary for State for Agriculture. Further, 

 the committee will form a convenient body to deal with any matters 

 of general principle now referred to the Under-Secretary for State by 

 Government. The committee should be flexible, and that flexibility 

 may be given to it by a power to co-opt members for particular 

 purposes. 



It perhaps carries me too far beyond the range of my terms 

 of reference, but it may help to render my conception of the working 

 of this Ministerial committee more clear if I say that I look upon this 

 committee merely as one of a number of such committees. It is, 

 in my opinion, the most satisfactory means of dealing with all technical 

 subjects which concern more than one section of the Ministry. On the 

 one hand, they form a most convenient means for deciding, by mutual 

 discussion, the lines of work of the different sections so that these may 

 dovetail into each other, while at the same time automatically placing 



