8 ’ BULLETIN 742, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. - 
and seed remain somewhere near the present levels and that labor 
can be obtained for picking so large an acreage. 
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. 
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. 
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 prob- 
able that the average rental value of land in Lower Egypt is not 
far from $40 per acre, being much higher than the average rental 
value of land in the Sov PRSEEPA United States having similar capa- 
bilities of crop production. 
While the cotton growers of Arizona and California have the ad- 
vantage 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 imple- 
ments. 
The Egyptian industry suffers two serious disadvantages which 
do not exist in Arizona and California. One of these is the difficulty 
of maintaining pure seed, due to the widespread occurrence of 
Hindi, or “weed,” cotton, which is discussed more in detail -else- 
“where in this bulletin. The other is the existence of certain insect 
pests, notably the pink bollworm, which has recently caused serious 
and extensive damage and is still spreading. 
Tt is probable that the higher valuation of land in Egypt, beaches 
with the less efficient methods of tillage, nearly or quite offsets the 
higher cost of labor in the United States. The crop-producing 
capabilities of the land in the two regions are much the same. The 
commercial value of the Arizona crop compares favorably with the 
best of the Egyptian crop. Finally, the Egyptian cotton grown in ‘ 
