230 COTTON 



characters of such varieties slowly break down by hybrid- 

 ization, the varieties themselves becoming more and 

 more impure each year. Even a greater assistance to 

 their degradation is the difficulty of keeping the seed 

 unmixed in the operation of ginning. The mixture of 

 seed in the ginneries, as well as the hybridization of 

 plants in the field, was of a small degree of importance 

 ten years ago, when the number of varieties were fewer 

 and the areas under cotton were rather less congested; 

 but the subject has now assumed a very prominent 

 position for consideration in connection with the preserva- 

 tion of the quality of cotton, and the formation of the 

 Department of Agriculture in Egypt occurred just in 

 time to take this question up in a serious manner. The 

 distribution of cotton seed by the Government and the 

 propagation of approved pure strains of cotton, intended 

 to be in continuous supply to the country, were the means 

 adopted to counteract the deterioration which threatened 

 to become widespread. The success which the first 

 project has attained can be seen from the following 

 figures of distribution: 1910-11, 8,600 bushels; 1911-12, 

 235,000 bushels; and 1912-13, 460,000 bushels. The dis- 

 tribution for 1913-14 approximates 700,000 bushels. 



With regard to breeding pure cottons, the Ministry 

 of Agriculture possesses several types which have been 

 evolved by Mendelian methods in experimental farms by 

 the late botanist to the Ministry, Mr. L. Balls, the seed 

 from some of which are now being propagated with a 

 view to distribution year by year upon an increasing scale. 

 Uniformity of staple is certainly prejudiced so long as 

 cultivators plant different varieties upon proximate areas, 

 and ginneries are constructed more with a view to the 

 mechanical separation of lint and seed than for the pre- 

 vention of admixture of the varieties of the latter, but 

 such adverse effects should be reduced to a minimum, 

 and possibly even overcome altogether by the methods 

 adopted at present by the Government to combat the 

 evils. 



Inferiority of quality caused by the attacks of insect 

 pests cannot be regarded as a permanent effect, although 

 in a country such as Egypt, where the cultivated areas 



