A FORTNIGHTLY REVIEW 



OF THE 



LIBRARY 

 NEW YORK 



BOTANICAL 



IMPERIAL DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE FOR THE WEST INDIES. «^^^hn. 



Vol. IV. No. 96. 



BAEBADOS, DECEMBER 23, 1905. 



Price Id. 



Selection of Cotton Seed in 



the West Indies, 



T is thoroughly ■well recognized by cot'ion 

 plantei's in the Sea I.slands that it is only 

 t^'i ^ by careful selection that the staple can be 

 kept up to its present quality: in other words, seed 



selection is inseparable from the success of the Sea 

 Island cotton industr}'. It may therefore be realized 

 that the methods adopted by the leading planters in 

 the Sea Islands are of a careful and painstaking nature, 

 so much so that they might be regarded as models for 

 plant breeders throughout the world. 



As stated in the Agricultural News (Vol. Ill, 

 p. ()9) 'the historx' of Sea Island cotton . . . serves us 

 as an example showing how a tropical plant has not 

 onl}- been adajDted to another climate, but at the same 

 time the product has been brought to a very high 

 pitch of perfection ; the whole having been accom- 

 plished by selection, aided by good cultivation and 

 manuring.' Seeds of this plant were taken from 

 the Bahamas in 1785 and planted in Georgia. The first 

 step was to secure, by planting only the earliest 

 produced seeds, an earlier maturing plant. Having 

 attained this, the planters started a very careful 

 system of selection with the view of increasing the 

 length, strength, and fineness of the staple. In this 

 way the production of the finest-quality cotton in the 

 world has been attained. 



In an article in the Yearbook of the U.S. Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture for 1902, Mr. Herbert J. Webber 

 records a remarkable instance of improvement in 

 length and abundance of fibre. In this case 

 Egyptian seed was imported ; the length of the fibres 

 attached to the seed was only about 1|- inches. This 

 cotton was submitted to a rigorous course of selection 

 with the result that, in two years, not only had the lint 

 increased in abundance and uniformity, but also the 

 fibres had reached, in some instances, a length of If 



