COTTON 21 
But if India’s interest in cotton growing seems to 
be waning, Egypt is even more surely awakening 
to her advantages as a cotton-producing country. 
In 1894-95 the land of the Pharaohs produced only 
650,000 bales; in 1904-5 1,187,000 bales. Much 
of this increase is undoubtedly due to the great 
irrigation improvements of which the world has 
heard so much; but even without these the same 
steady growth which has marked the course of 
Egyptian cotton farming since its beginning 
would doubtless have been maintained. Egypt is 
the only country whose cotton trade did not decline 
when the South after Lee’s surrender resumed her 
old place as the home of the fleecy staple. Maho 
Bey, aided by a Frenchman named Jumel, turned 
the attention of Egypt to cotton farming in 1820 
—whence the name “Maho” and “Jumel” for 
Egyptian cotton—and she has taken no backward 
step in the 80 years since she began by sending 
5,323 bales to Liverpool. 
THREE-FOURTHS OF WORLD'S SUPPLY GROWN IN 
THE SOUTH 
After all, however, the world gives little thought 
to India or Egypt or Brazil or Russia, when it 
comes to reckon on the next year’s cotton supply. 
For more than three-fourths of this supply it must 
look to twelve American States and Territories, in 
ten of which it is the chief farm product. We have 
already seen that half our agricultural export val- 
ues is in cotton. On more than 1,000,000 American 
farms cotton is the principal source of income. 
Every foot of the surface of seven of our smaller 
States—land and water, hill and dale, field and 
