164 



expert finds one lint which resembles Afifi, except that it has the 

 color of Yannovitch ; he next meets another which has the color 

 of Afifi, but which he would unhesitatingly affirm to be American 

 Upland if the room were darkened. The task of analyzing an F2 

 in this way is almost hopeless, however valuable the results may 

 be for other purposes" (p. 147). 



"We have now examined the nature of the problems which 

 the non-measurable characters present. The general trend of 

 the evidence Is to show that inheritance becomes more complex 

 as the crossed parents are less and less closely related. The 

 amount of labor which the author has been able to apply to these 

 problems, under the limitations imposed by natural crossing 

 and accidental circumstances, has not been enough to produce 

 one clean and indisputable proof for any character. Neverthe- 

 less, he believes that the preceding discussion will be found by 

 later workers to represent the general position of a complex 

 subject" (p. 149). 



The expectation was that Mendelian breeding of new varieties 

 would save the Egyptian industry from the danger of deteriora- 

 tion that seemed to be threatened. But the methods that were 

 applied did not lead to an appreciation of the possibility of 

 developing uniform Hindi-free strains of Egyptian cotton by the 

 simple and direct means of individual selection and roguing of 

 progenies and seed fields, as has been done in the United States. 

 The new varieties that have gained prominence recently in 

 Egypt, such as Assil and Sakellaridis, seem to have been de- 

 veloped without any relation to Mendelian investigations. 



The practical utility of a scientific investigation often proves 

 to be entirely diff"erent from what was expected. Though no 

 direct applications of Mendelism seem to have resulted from the 

 experiments, another important service was rendered. On the 

 basis of his physiological studies Mr. Balls was able to give a 

 biological confirmation of the idea that the increased supply of 

 water made available through recent improvements of irrigation 

 facilities in Egypt were responsible for a serious deterioration of 

 the cotton crop. Extensive drainage works are now in progres 

 as a means of controlling the subterranean water table in the 

 cotton-growing districts of Lower Egypt. 



