CHAPTER IV 



THE COTTON FIBRE 



When the " sunshine effect " was first announced, a some- 

 what smiling denial came from many cotton experts. 

 When some of them had been converted to a belief in the 

 fact, they objected that it could not apply to the growth 

 of the lint. Substituting "may" for "could" this 

 criticism is still valid ; yet if the reader has succeeded in 

 gathering some conception of the fate of cotton plants 

 under Egyptian field conditions, he will probably expect 

 this criticism to yield before further experimental work. 



We are, in point of fact, profoundly ignorant as to the 

 bearing of the two preceding chapters upon the final 

 commercial result, owing in the main to difficulties in the 

 technique of investigation. Methods for determining the 

 strength of small samples of fibre, for instance, are non- 

 existent ; true, it is possible to determine breaking-strains, 

 but the labour involved is enormous * if sufficient results 

 are to be obtained to give a reasonable probable error for 

 only a single seed. When not merely a single seed, but a 

 thousand, have to be examined, the method becomes 

 hopeless. The author is experimenting with indirect 

 methods such as determinations of weight, specific gravity, 

 etc., which can be made on single fibres by suitable 

 appliances, but as yet we are dependent on the rule of 



* Vide e.g. Yves Henry. 



81 n 



