Do you mean if E is wrong, the evaluation of the argument is that the argument can hold because one of the premises is true. And if E is correct, the evaluation of the argument is that the argument can not hold because one of the premises is wrong. This is the way to evaluate the argument.
Sorry, I still can not persuade myself to accept your opinion. If the conclusion is generalized from the the farmers who tried the modified cotton, like the example you give, sure questioning the representativeness is a good way to evaluate the argument. However, I think the author mentions the farmers who tried modified cotton only for showing the information concerned. And the reason relating the farmers' representativeness can not harm the report. Moreover, I am still questioning whether it is reasonable to draw the farmers' representative of most farmers just based on the word "exceptionally" which may only means "very".
i support d. when we test something, we want the sample to be as large as possible, if the sample is not large enough, the result could be questionable.