GOVERNMENT WORK FOR THE FARMER. 33 



breeders can go ahead and produce crops which are resistant 

 to these diseases. 



Now the breeding work of the bureau of plant industry 

 extends to other Hues. I want to speak about cotton, as long 

 as that is one of the main products of your manufacturing in 

 New England. All over this great country of ours, from 

 South 'Carolina to Texas, we grow a little short staple cotton 

 about three-quarters of an inch to an inch in length, and that 

 is the staple which mainly reaches your mills in New England. 

 In a few instances in the Mississippi valley, and in other sec- 

 tions of the South, they grow a staple cotton which is an inch 

 and a half long. In the case of the former it is worth from 

 six to eight cents per pound while in the case of the latter it 

 is worth a much greater price. On some of the islands along 

 the eastern coast of the South they grow the best staple cotton 

 which is known in the country ; in fact, the famous Sea Island 

 cotton comes from that section. I like to impress this fact, 

 that while we grow some of the short and poor staple cotton 

 yet nevertheless we also grow the best, for that Sea Island 

 cotton grows from two to two and one-half inches in length, 

 and instead of selling from eight to ten and twelve cents a 

 pound that sells right along for forty and fifty cents a pound 

 for the best grade, and for the poorer grade from twenty- 

 five to thirty cents a pound. Here was a chance to produce a 

 better product by getting a variety, for instance, which would 

 produce a longer staple. Every one familiar with the subject 

 recognizes that if we had a longer staple we would have a 

 better grade of goods because the longer the staple the stronger 

 the thread and the better the wearing quality of the goods. 

 Now the Department has taken up this question of the im- 

 provement of cotton. The Department experts said, why can 

 we not produce a better staple cotton ? We have here the best, 

 and also, if not the poorest, some of the poor. We have on 

 the one hand a short staple adapted to the climate all over the 

 South, and on the other hand we find some varieties with fibres 

 of the longest kind, and if these two could be combined, not 

 with the idea of producing all of the best, but of substantially 

 improving the poor, it would make an excellent cotton. So 

 the suggestion was made that possibly by hybridizing these 

 varieties and breeding them carefully we could produce a 

 variety of cotton which might not be as good as the best, but 



Agr. — 3 



