SCIENCE AND COTTON 295 



of fine cotton, good cultivation is of equal importance with 

 good seed. 



Seed-supply 



Some useful work has been contributed from several parts 

 of the world on the facts of genetics in cotton, but so far as 

 the fine-cotton supply is concerned, the matter has scarcely begun 

 to take economic shape. Indirectly, Mendel's law of Gametic 

 Segregation has been of immense use, allowing us to tread 

 firmly where we should otherwise have been lost in uncer- 

 tainties. The proof of extensive natural crossing in field crop 

 may be cited as one result which could not have been ob- 

 tained in pre-Mendelian days, and the isolation of pure strains 

 is made straightforward through this law. 



Work in genetics is primarily synthetic, however, and the 

 two examples quoted are purely analytic. That synthesis of 

 super-plants of Gossypium will be capable of prescription before 

 long, no one can doubt ; outside the fine-cotton sphere a 

 beginning has been made by Mr. Leake. The matter is more 

 complex when the effect of the plant-body upon minute cha- 

 racteristics of the lint-hairs has to be considered, still more 

 complex when those characteristics are indefinable by the only 

 persons who can see them, and practically hopeless when it 

 becomes necessary — as it actually is — to grow several acres 

 of any extracted strain, and handle it on a commercial scale, 

 before its value can be determined. 



The very magnitude of the trade with which the cotton- 

 breeder deals is a hindrance rather than a help. The trade 

 is so immense that it cannot afford to alter its methods, 

 modify its machinery, and reorganise its market for the sake of a 

 new cotton, however good and cheap that cotton might be, 

 until its permanent supply is assured. The most which the 

 breeder can do is to introduce cottons which typify the ideal 

 of existing varieties. If such a cotton is introduced, it stands 

 a very good chance of being disregarded through seeming the 

 same as the existing varieties. 



Apart from directly applicable research, there is great need 

 for such investigation as would be conducted in academic 

 circles, merely using cotton as the subject when practicable 

 instead of some other plant. It is only by such steady effort 

 that complete success can be obtained. Unfortunately, cotton 



