COTTON 



Suggestions were made by the Chief Inspector of the 

 Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. A. T. McKillop, that cotton 

 sticks might be economically made into charcoal, and 

 demonstrations were given of the method of conversion. 9 

 It was maintained that if this were adopted it would over- 

 come the difficulties in connection with the operation of 

 picking of bolls, to be made compulsory by the law 

 mentioned above, and would not completely destroy the 

 cotton sticks, which are the chief form of fuel in a large 

 part of the country. The loss in volume caused by the 

 conversion of cotton wood into charcoal is compensated 

 to some extent by the increased calorific value of the 

 charcoal. The main advantage, however, would be that 

 the boll worms remaining in the dead cotton plants as 

 well as in the cotton bolls would be effectively destroyed. 

 The neglect of the cultivators to make use of this sug- 

 gestion made it imperative to carry through the law 

 mentioned above. 



Among the many measures proposed for the destruc- 

 tion of insect pests the experiments conducted in the 

 Entomological Section of the Ministry of Agriculture 

 under the direction of Dr. Lewis Gough call for special 

 mention. Dr. Gough, as member to the Commission, 

 submitted a note to the Committee pointing out that with 

 relation to all the cotton pests the action of various insect 

 maladies was under examination. Experiments have 

 since been made with most of the diseases known to be 

 fatal to insects, and with reference to the common boll 

 worm it has been found that it is among those susceptible 

 to attacks of the protozoan disease (Micros poridium 

 polyedricum, Bolle), as well as the other diseases of silk 

 worms. The Microsporidium disease, known also as 

 " grasserie," is common among silk worms, and was 

 introduced into Egypt in 1912, in which year a spon- 

 taneous outbreak occurred among cotton worms (Pro- 

 denia litura, Fabr.), which were very numerous in that 

 year. 



The rapidity with which this disease spread throughout 

 the country and the subsequent effect on the appearance 



9 McKillop. Agric. Journ. of Egypt, 1913, vol. iii, part 2, 

 p. 27. 



