should also be used for conveying the seed cotton from the store to the ginnery.

Ginning factories during the season, when there is a large crop, work day and night; they begin running in August and finish in January. When I visited the ginneries they were working only 15 hours per day. The following notice (ver

batim) was posted up at Messrs. Choremi, Benachi & Company, Beni-Suef:

Working hours: 15; in full season day and night work by changing every 12 hours the workmen. Age children 14 years."

On the State Domains in Korashia the labor in connection with ginning is contracted out. A contractor supplies the necessary hands and receives 31⁄2d. per kantar of cotton ginned, the Domains finding only the gins, driving power, coal, and the engineer.

Seed for sowing purposes is selected at the ginnery from the first pickings of cotton only.

The price of seed fluctuates considerably; when I inquired it was about 83 piastres for one ardeb, that is about 17 shillings per 270 pounds.

Remembering that the American farmers said at Atlanta in 1907 that the cotton improves by keeping it unginned for about three to four weeks (they maintained that it becomes more ripe and mellow), I made inquiries whether this method was also followed in Egypt, and was told on several occasions that this would injure Egyptian cotton; only one man spoke of its advantages. Evidently the ginners might experiment in this direction.

GINNING OUT-TURN.

A kantar of seed cotton is equal to 315 pounds; this weight was taken as a basis, because 315 pounds used to give 100 pounds of ginned cotton. All ginning out-turns of Egyptian cotton are on the basis of 315 pounds seed cotton. If one speaks of a certain quality giving 96 as ginning out-turn, it means 96 pounds of lint for every 315 pounds of seed cotton. The ginning out-turn is, of course, of the greatest importance to the farmer, as it largely influences the price at which he can sell his cotton.

The following may be taken as the present average ginning

out-turns:

Afifi, 102-103

Abassi, 102-103

Jannovitch, 98.5—99

Sakellaridis, 98.5—99, in some places 105

Voltos, 105-107

Assili, 110

Ashmouni, 100

Linters called "Scarto" in Egypt are not included as fibre.

WATERING COTTON.

When the ginned cotton arrives in the pressing room, all the cotton is scattered over the floor which is constructed like a sieve; the cotton is thrown up in the air by about ten men, an overlooker giving the word of command. This process shakes the dust to a certain extent out of the cotton. After about two minutes shaking the men stand still and the cotton is watered in the following way. I noticed one, or in some cases two men, each provided with a garden syringe about two inches in diameter and almost two feet long, emptying, sometimes once, sometimes twice, the syringes over the cotton from a fixed water tank. No secret is made of this artificial damping of cotton. With the exception of the factories on the Domain estate, I was told all the ginneries water the cotton, and certainly I have seen it done quite openly in the largest concerns in Egypt. I was informed that one ginnery has an ingenious system of sprinklers attached to the box cart which collects the cotton. from the gins; as this cart passes the gins, water is sprinkled over the cotton as soon as it falls from the gin. The cotton is shaken twice and watered twice, then it goes into the press. If suction pipes were used the ten men would not be needed, as the dust is then blown away automatically.

I had considerable argument with the owners of gins as regards this watering. First I was told it is an absolute necessity, because if it were not done the spinners would constantly complain as to inferior quality. I admitted that the cotton "pulls" better when somewhat moist, but maintained that the spinner would prefer to damp his own cotton if he wanted it to

"pull well," than to pay somebody else about 6s. per bale at the least. Another gin owner said watering improves the quality, but I cannot see that a fibre separated from its nourishing point, the seed, can be improved by water, but if it is improved, why should not the spinner do this watering himself and save the money? Another reason stated was that the cotton would not press to the required density if it were not watered. I asked two men of practical experience in pressing, and they told me that the damping was not required for the sake of pressing the bales.

I may mention here, that the ginner, or shipper, when he buys the cotton from the grower, deducts regularly one per cent. of the weight for damp and samples; but in buying from the Domain estates no such deduction is allowed. I am not aware that the spinner receives any such allowance from the Alexandria shipper as a regular condition, although the latter has put more damp into the cotton which he bought, subject to the allowance.

I was told that cotton is sometimes artificially damped by the fellah, and that the ginner has to let the cotton lie for several days before he can gin it. In such cases the ginner fixes the allowance, which, I was told by a manager of a large gin, the native generally accepts without question.

Whilst pointing out to the spinners the artificial damping in the process of pressing, I feel it my duty to mention that I am convinced the ginners (respectively the cotton shippers who are in most cases identical with the ginners) continue this method solely in the belief that the cotton is benefitted by it, and not in order to obtain any unfair advantage. It seems to me a trade usage which has become thoroughly recognized, the wisdom of which however, from the spinner's point of view at all events, seems open to discussion.

PRESSING.

Generally speaking, Egyptian cotton is baled three times. First when the cotton comes from the field the grower puts it

in sacks of about 400 pounds. After ginning it is made up in hydraulically pressed bales of about 700-800 pounds. For this purpose box presses are used; two or three boxes are on a turning disc; whilst one bale is being pressed the other two are being filled. Only a few of the presses I inspected had the usual system of piston pressing whilst filling the boxes with cotton; in most cases as many as six men kept stamping the cotton down with their feet in the box. When the box was full they drew themselves up on ropes suspended over each box. Here again was a waste of labor!

After being hydraulically pressed the bale is usually sent to Alexandria, where it is opened again, examined, watered and pressed, this time by steam to the well-known excellent shape. In isolated cases the ginneries in the country have besides the hydraulic press, a steam press. Strange to say, even there all bales are first pressed by the hydraulic press and covered with canvas and hoops, and on the very next day they are opened again and finally pressed by steam. I inquired at the two gins where hydraulic and steam presses are kept, for the reason of this apparently unnecessary first pressing; in one case I was frankly told that the hydraulic press serves for the equal division of the moisture; in the other factory, no reason was given, except that it was the custom. Why the hydraulically-pressed bale is covered with canvas and hoops and stitched when it is to be opened again in twelve hours I cannot understand.

This twice pressing seems, at all events, a waste of labor; no satisfactory argument has been put forward to convince me of its necessity. The very firm that gins and presses the bale in the first instance has ample opportunity of inspecting the cotton, and it is in most cases the same firm in Alexandria that sells the cotton to Europe.

On steam-pressed bales there is a saving of 81⁄2d. per bale over hydraulically-pressed bales, in carriage by rail from KafrelZayat, the principal ginning centre, to Alexandria.

The cost of ginning is generally 7 piastres (Is. 6d.) per kantar, but it is only in rare cases that the fellah gets his cotton