November, 1912,] 



879 



COTTON PLANTING IN EGYPT. 



Cotton is planted in all varieties of soil in Egypt and may occur upon 

 the same pieces of land twice in a period of three years, although good 

 cultivators do not plant it more frequently than once within that time. 

 It usually follows clover, beans or a bare fallow, and occupies the ground 

 from February to March until October to November in Upper Egypt and 

 from March or April or even May until November or December in Lower 

 Egypt. During the early months of the plants' growth, the neighbouring 

 fields are chiefly under crops of clover (bersim), wheat, barley and rice, 

 and during the months after the advent of the Nile flood water, maize, 

 millet and clover. For a cotton crop the ground is ploughed in two or 

 three directions and then formed into ridges from 60 to 90 centimetre 

 apart [say 2-3 feet] and running from east to west in order to permit the 

 seed to be sown upon the southern face so as to receive as much sun as 

 possible during the early months' growth and be protected from the cold 

 wiuds fiom the north. Watering is done entirely by irrigation channels 

 from canals or by means of pumps upon the river. In the first case it 

 may be by free flow, high level canals, or by means cf lifting it from low 

 level ones. It is usual to water cotton about thirty days after sowing 

 and then at intervals of from sixteen to twenty days until the flood 

 arrives in July, when it is frequently the practice to run on an excess of 

 water, often to the extent of leaving the plants standing in the water for a 

 considerable time. 



Flowering commences in July and the first ripe bolls appear in Sep- 

 tember, Although cotton worms and boll worms exist on other plants 

 early in the year, the first do not appear in large quantities upon the 

 cotton plants until the beginning of July and boll worms are usually rare 

 upon the plants until August.— Cottonworm and BoLlworm Commission 

 of Egypt, 1912,— Circular No. 1, 



LAC CULTIVATION IN CEYLON. 



Two boxes containing 100 sticks of Ber or Masan (Zizyphus jujuba) 

 were received on the 10th of October having been despatched from Pusa 

 on September 28th. Owing to the delay in transit, about 50% of the 

 larvte had emerged from the sticks. 



A few branches of the masan tree at the Royal Botanic Gardens 

 were inoculated with the larvte on the 11th and some sticks were given to 

 Mr. A. Lee Simpson of Mandalagirikande Estate, Wattegama, and to 

 Mr. K. Bandara-Beddewela of Maligatenne, Kandy, who are interested in 

 the cultivation of lac. Of the balance, two masan trees were inoculated at 

 Tangalle and two at Ambalantota in the Hanibantota District as the 

 climate of this part of the country is considered by Mr. Bainbridge 

 Fletcher, (who was recently Acting Imperial Entomologist of India), who 

 has been in Ceylon and knows the local conditions to be more suitable for las 



The success of the inoculation at Ambalantota is doubtful, as the 

 brood lac was 15 days old when used for inoculation and the larvas had 

 nearly all emerged from the sticks. The larvae have settled down in 

 branches of the masan tree at Peradeniyaas well as in the two at Tangalle, 



The delay in receipt of the boxes, which took twice as long in arriving 

 as they should have done, has been reported to the Imperial Entomologist 

 for India; who has also been asked to be so good as to arrange to send 

 brood lac suitable for the Kon (Schleichera triyuga) and Rain treei— 

 (Ni Wickbemakatnb, Agricultural Instructor,) 



