374 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



November 27, 1909. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholine and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date Novembers, with reference 

 to the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton : — • 



Since our last report, American Sea Island cotton has 

 continued to advance, and they are now asking 19|(i. for 

 Fully Fine Island and HV-lil. for the best Floridas, but buyers 

 are holding off, thiuking the advance has been too rapid. 



During this period, about 30 bales Barbados have been 

 sold at I6d. to 17Jd, as promptly as it arrived. 



The report of, Messrs. Henry W. Frost & Co., on 

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending November 6, is as follows : — 



The market has been firm and dearer throughout the 

 week, and factors succeeded in securing their asking prices 

 for tlie larger proportion of the sales, showing an advance of 

 3c. per tt). over the prices last quoted. 



The buying has been for England and the northern 

 mills. 



The market opened with sales of Fully Fine 33c. to 34c., 

 •Extra Fine 36c. to 37c., and closed firm at the following 

 quotations, viz: Fine 33c., Fully Fine 3.5c., E.xtra Fine 37c. 

 There is no accumulation of odd bags, classing as above, the 

 receipts to date having been sold, so that the factors continue 

 firm in their views. 



SELECTION OF COTTON VARIETIES FOR 



UNIFORMITY. 



It is a well-known tact that the introduction of 

 a good variety of cotton into a locality often leads to 

 the exhibition of a large amount of diversity among 

 the plants, and that, in addition, thoy may appear to 

 possess very different characteristics from those present- 

 ed by them in their old surroundings. This effect has 

 been shown, in Bulletin No. 1.59 of the Bureau 'if Plant 

 Industry of the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture, to be different from other types of variation, such 

 as the ordinary fluctuating differences, changes due to 

 iiccommodation, direct effects of environment, and 

 diversity due to hybridization, and is there termed 

 a ' new-place effect '. The remedy suggested is selection 

 for ' local adjustment', that is selection for uniformity 

 by rejecting all lines of descent in which changes from 

 the best type occur: it is a natural concomitant of 

 selection for improvement, and it seems that any 

 propcrl}' organized scheme for this would automatically 



include it: thus its consideration only forms another 

 argument for the continuous practice of selection. As 

 many of the conclusions reached in the above-mentioned 

 bulletin are applicable to West Indian conditions, they 

 are given here : — 



The growing of a variety of cotton in a new locality ia 

 likely to bring about a distinct reduction in the yield, as well 

 as in the quality, of the fibre. This deterioration has been 

 found to be connected with an increase of diversity among 

 the individual plants. Even when a carefully selected, uniform 

 stock is used for the experiment, a much greater amount of 

 diversity may appear in a new place than when the same stock 

 is grown under the accustomed conditions of the previous 

 locality, where the variety was improved by selection. 



The diversity that reappears in the first season, when 

 a variety of cotton is grown in a new place, can be greatly 

 reduced in later seasons by selecting seeds from the plants 

 whose characteristics have been least disturbed by the 

 transfer to the new place — those that are the most fertile and 

 have the best lint. This process of selection to restore the 

 unifornuty of a variety in a new place is called local adjust- 

 ment. 



Selection for local adjustment is distinct in objects and 

 methods from breeding for improvement or for originating 

 new varieties. The object of local adjustment is to preserve 

 varieties already existing and to guard them against recurrence 

 of diversity. Practical .advantages can be secured by simple 

 selection for local adjustment without the separate testing 

 of individual lines of descent, as is required in breeding for 

 improvement of a variety, or when new breeds are to be 

 developed. 



The phenomena of local adjustment are of general .scien- 

 tific interest as illu.strating one of the influences of external 

 conditions upcm the expression of characters in organisms. 

 The recurrence of diversity in a previously uniform variety 

 serves with othes facts to show that ancestral diversities 

 continue to be inherited, even when their expression is 

 avoided by efficient selection. That changes of conditions can 

 induce a return to diversity shows that the environment is 

 able to influence the expression of characters, and that its 

 influence is not limited to characters that vary directly and 

 regularly with changes of environment. 



Apart from the effects of conditions which limit or 

 inhibit the growth of the plants, two kinds of changes are 

 found to follow transfer to new places : (1) Changes of 

 accommodation to different conditions and (2) diversification, 

 or loss of nnifonnity. Changes of accommodation do not 

 ilireetly increase diversity, for they are shared by all the 

 individuals, but changes of accommodation are often accom- 

 panied by changes of other characters which render the 

 inilividuai plants much more unlike than before 



