30 



VIII. 



I have yet to deal with those subjects which I have termed 

 collateral, inasmuch as they are mainly concerned with problems 

 affecting agriculture as a whole and relate to cotton merely as one, 

 though, it is true, the preponderating one, of the crops of the country. 

 The distinction places them in the position of separate and independent 

 sections of the Ministry, between which and the sections already dealt 

 with, if formality is to be given to the relations, touch may be maintained 

 through the Ministerial Committee. As I have stated, the subjects 

 lie outside the scope of this report. I will only note here that the 

 relation between mycology and bacteriology, in its agricultural bearing, 

 is a close one, the methods of research are similar, and the agricultural 

 bacteriologist is, through his training, usually well grounded in 

 mycology. Soil bacteriology appears to be the more urgent line of 

 investigation at the present time, and it may, therefore, be found 

 advisable for the moment to unite these two into a single section. 



f 



IX. 



There remains one subject which arises from what has been said 

 under the section dealing with botanical research, but which, as it is 

 of wider concern, I have left for separate treatment. In its bearing 

 on the botanical work it concerns the source of the material which will 

 form the basis of that work. In the course of that discussion I pointed 

 out the hybrid nature of the Egyptian cotton crop, and indicated the 

 possibility of the spontaneous origin of new and advantageous types as 

 the result of the fortuitous combination, through cross fertilization, of 

 certain characters. The entire crop is thus a natural laboratory, and 

 the search for, and preservation of, such naturally arising and improved 

 combinations is most important. The search is of the nature of that 

 proverbial one the needle in a haystack and it is a practicable 

 impossibility that the botanical staff shall undertake it. Yet it 

 requires to be done. There appear to be two possibilities, in the 

 utilization of Government and private agencies. 



The district agricultural staff, developed on the lines indicated, 

 will give a large number of observers scattered throughout the country. 

 In the fields and in the ginneries they will have, from time to time, their 

 attention drawn to plants, groups of plants, or to samples of seed 

 cotton differing from those typical of the locality. It should be the 

 practice for such " finds " to be preserved and the seed submitted to the 

 Botanical Section for trial. In the case of a single plant or an odd 

 "lock'^of Jcotton, the seed will be sent to the Botanical Section to be 

 tested for purity and for the establishment of purity, if the progeny 

 prove impure. If it be a group of plants that has been selected, the 

 case falls under the head of bulk selection. In such a case it may be 



