8 BULLETIN 332, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
Valley. CaL, which includes about 500.000 acres. If 20 per cent of 
the land in these two sections were to be used for Egyptian cotton, 
it is estimated that 100.000 bales might be produced annually, in 
addition to the 50,000 bales which the Salt River Valley could supply. 
While the production of Egyptian cotton appears to be possible to 
the extent indicated here, it seems unlikely that this crop will be 
grown in the Imperial and Yuma Valleys in the near future. 
COMPARISON OF AMERICAN AND EGYPTIAN CONDITIONS. 
The commercial production of Egyptian cotton in the United 
States involves the marketing of the product in direct competition 
with the crop of Egypt. This fact warrants a brief consideration 
of the status of the cotton industry in that country and a comparison 
between the conditions there and in the southwestern United States. 1 
The production in Egypt of cotton having a staple comparable with 
that of the Salt River Valley product is limited to what is known as 
Lower Egypt, that is to say, the Nile Delta, north of Cairo. This 
region includes about 3.250.000 acres of irrigated land, of which about 
40 per cent is annually devoted to cotton, with an average yield of 
about 450 pounds of lint per acre. • 
This land is heavily capitalized, and the cost of irrigation water is 
high. These features are best expressed by rental values, which range 
for the best land from $50 to $75 a year per acre. It is probable that 
the average rental value of land in Lower Egypt is not far from $40 
per acre, or at least twice the rental value of land in Arizona having 
similar capabilities of crop production. 
While the cotton growers of Arizona have the advantage in 
respect to land rental or interest on land investment, those of Egypt 
are able to get their cotton picked at much less cost, owing to the 
cheapness and abundance of labor in that country. Aside from these 
two items, the cost of production is probably not very different in the 
two countries, since the low wage paid to farm laborers in Egypt is 
offset by the fact that the American farmer works with large fields 
and uses horse-drawn implements extensively. Much of the Egyptian 
crop, on the other hand, is grown by peasant farmers in small fields 
and with the use of very primitive implements. 
The Egyptian industry suffers two serious disadvantages which 
do not exist in Arizona. One of these is the difficulty of maintaining 
pure seed, dug to the widespread occurrence of Hindi, or " weed," 
cotton, which is discussed more in detail elsewhere in this paper. 
The other is the existence of certain insect pests, notably the pink 
1 For a more detailed discussion of the physical conditions in Egypt and in the south- 
western United States, see Kearney, T. EL, and Peterson, W. A., Egyptian cotton in the 
southwestern United States, U. S. Dept. Agr., Bur. Plant Indus. Bui. 128, 71 p., 2 figs., 
5 pi., 1908. 
