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Reflections on the Cultivation of Cotton in Egypt

Cotton: from the country, Abyssinia, India, Malta

Gossypium: Herbaceum, Alboreum, Indicum, Vitifolium, Religiosum

Cultivated on the lands of the Nilotic valley, these aforementioned species or varieties of cotton are one of the summer crops which begin by settling into the soil (CHECK) during the month of March. In April, (CHECK) sowing takes place, and in November, harvesting occurs. The amount of seed used to cultivate one feddan of land varies from 5 to 6 kilograms; the result of the year's harvest, on average, is three and a half cantara of purified cotton, and the same amount of seeds, more than twenty camel loads of dry wood to burn. The cotton of this country (Gossypium herbaceum) has a very remote introduction, and originated in northern Nubia in Ethiopia. Now, its cultivation is limited almost exclusively to northern Egypt, and almost not at all in the middle and southern regions where you see Indian cotton cultivated on large plots of land. This type is distinct by its nickname 'jumel cotton' named after the French agronomist who first introduced its cultivation in Egypt about 50 ago (CHECK). The new cotton in India has produced two varieties: the Gossypium Indicum and the Gossypium Vitifolium. (CHECK) a third, has the common name 'Mako' Cotton' because it originates from a province in Abyssinia called this. This third variety's scientific name is Gossypium alboreum, but I believe that they are simply varieties of the Gossypium Indicum. The Nanjing cotton from Malta, with yellow-reddish wool (Gossypium religiosum) was at one point introduced in the cultivation of the Nile Valley, and although it produced satisfactory results, its harvest was never expanded more. This species, when found in good condition for farming, prospers greatly and provides much more cotton than the species, even six cantara of feddano, but its thread is not very long or thin. At its introduction, the varieties of Indigo cotton supplied European trade, in the past, they were the best quality of cotton among the greatest competitors, preferable to many others from the Orient and America. The indigo cotton of Egypt, when it receives all the agricultural care, offers a very fine, limp, and strong fiber, and is a perfect white with a silvery radiance. Il Cotoniere...