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which he has achieved is really remarkable. The cotton he 
originally took had no type or character connected with it at 
all, but now in going through the fields which have resulted 
from the seed produced by Mr. McCall, you can see that each 
plant is of a distinct type, and that the bolls do not have the 
haphazard shapes they used to have, but all have one peculiar 
shape. These facts indicate that there is great benefit in the 
selection begun by Mr. McCall in Nyasaland. In connection 
with the British Cotton Growing Association, we handle most 
of the cotton Mr. McCall has been producing in his experi- 
ments, and most of the samples sent home for examination 
show that much can be done in the way of improving cotton 
by selection experiments as carried out by Mr. McCall. I am 
sure that if such a system were carried out more generally, 
not only by Departments of Agriculture, but by individual 
planters, very much could be done towards making cotton a 
success where it is not a success at present. Much, of course, 
depends upon climate, insect pests, soils, and various other 
things over which the planter thinks that he has no sort of 
control; but if he were to carry out this system for a series of 
years, I am sure that much practical value would result 
from it. 
The Cuairman: Gentlemen—I regret that I have not been 
able to be present during the reading and discussion of the 
various important papers that have been communicated to this 
Congress. I need hardly say that all matters connected with 
the improvement of cotton production, and especially Egyptian 
cotton, are of very real interest to me, and it gives me great 
satisfaction to have arrived here in time to preside while refer- 
ence has been made, in one of the papers we have just heard 
read, to the problems connected with the progress of cotton 
cultivation in the valley of the Nile, with which I have been 
so closely associated during the past few years. 
I think we may claim that both as regards relative yield and 
quality Egypt has maintained the premier position for many 
years amongst cotton-producing countries. Since 1821, when 
this cultivation was commenced by the first Khedive in Egypt, 
it is a very interesting study to follow the evolution of the 
different characteristic types of cotton which have proved to 
be specially adapted to the climatic and soil conditions of the 
valley and delta of the Nile. Unfortunately, deterioration 
invariably sets in after a certain period of years, and scientific 
research has to be continuously employed with a view to re- 
creating those types of cotton that have given the name and 
fame to Egyptian cotton which it so rightly bears. 
The successful development of an agricultural product such 
