— 93 — V. Handwork : It is often necessary to round off the ridges and hods by hand to make them watertight.

VI. Planting.

VII. Thinning and Eepatching take place after the second watering.

VIII. Subsequent Cultivation : Cotton and lubia are horse-hoed, hand-hoed, and ridged at monthly intervals.

The former three times and the latter twice. After that the crop is too high to permit of further cleaning.

Wheat is harrowed as soon as it is well rooted, and again after the next watering.

An experiment to determine the value of additioiial cultivation was carried out with cotton in the years-1913-i4 and 1914-15, and with wheat in 1912-13. In the case of the cereal, as was confidently expected in view of the requirements of this crop, for a firm seed bed, deep cultivation had little or no effect on yield. With cotton, however, in every plot except one, better cultivation resulted in a larger yield. The general results for the two seasons are shown in the attached chart No. 2. Taking the last year's experiment in detail, the feddans were numbered consecutively from 1—9. The even numbers—2, 4, 6 and 8—furnished the check plots, and were ploughed dry, harrowed, ridged and planted.

The odd numbers—1, 3, 5, 7 and 9—constituted the experimental area and received additional cultivation, as follows : Feddan 1.—Flooded, ploughed, harrowed with disc and tooth harrows, levelled, cross-ploughed with disc plough, sub-soiled, harrowed, ridged and planted. Horse-hoed and earthed up at monthly intervals after establishment of crop.

Feddan 3.—Treated exactly as No. 1, except that it was not sub-soiled.

Feddan 5.— ,, ,, ,, but not flooded before ploughing.

Feddan 7.— „ „ „ but not sub-soiled and not levelled.-Feddan 9.— „ ,, „ but was not cultivated after germination.

The results were very satisfactory with the exception of Feddan 1. It is unfortunate that the salty underground khor mentioned earlier in the report, originates in one corner of this feddan, affecting the growth of the plants over a quarter of the area. The corresponding plot in the northern section, 1913-14, clearly shows that the yield recorded in 1914-15 oil this plot is to be attributed