ENVIRONMENT OF THE BOLL 103 



Looking at the significance of a high ginning out-turn 



in this light, its meaning is plain. If the crop of a given 



year has been marked by a high ginning out- 



igni cance turn ag compared with former years for 

 of Out-turn. 



the same variety it implies that a great 



majority of the flowers have opened on days when the 

 weather was favourable ; in other words, that excessively 

 hot, dry days, such as put a severe strain on the water- 

 content of the plant, have been few in number. Thus 

 the correlation which has been shown to exist between 

 the ginning out-turn of the Egyptian crop and the size 

 of the crop in the same year is easily understood. More- 

 over, if there is a sufficient proportion of good-weather 

 days, and if there is ample water-supply, the length of 

 the young bolls and the strength of the old ones will all 

 be affected beneficially at the same time as the ginning 

 out-turn of their youngest relations is being set at a high 

 figure. High ginning out-turn is thus what it is claimed 

 to be, an index to good quality in general. 



Further, if a boll has passed through severe weather 

 in the flower stage, the immediate effect will be diminished 

 sprouting of the lint hairs, with ultimately a low out- 

 turn as the consequence ; and in addition to this, and as 

 a natural further sequence of it, the cells of the boll will 

 be more or less self-poisoned, or senescent, and the later 

 stages of development will suffer proportionately. Very 



in out-turn between different species and varieties of them are 

 proportional to the numbers of hairs per seed. Since this ex- 

 planation has been reached by two entirely dissimilar lines of 

 attack, we may consider it fairly well established- 



