No. 528.
Mr. Comanos to Mr. Evarts.
Cairo, August 8, 1878. (Received August 30.)
Sir: In reply to your instructions of the 2d of July last, No. 106, I have the honor to state that there is no other variety of Bamiah cotton save that discovered in the Menonfieh district, which has been already mentioned in Mr. Farman’s dispatch No. 127, of May 4, 1877. Nevertheless I send to your address by this mail two bags of the seed of this plant, which is at present rather scarce.
The Bamiah plant having bat one stalk requires more frequent watering than the common cotton-plant; and if it once begins to wither the whole plant dies, and the entire fruit is lost. The raising of this species is, therefore, much more risky; and consequently growers, as yet, only dare to experiment with it on small tracts of land. Latterly the results of such experimental culture have not come up to the expectation aroused upon its first discovery.
I have, & c.,