22 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



January 21, 1911. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholme and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under dnte December 19, with reference 

 to the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton : — 



The .sales of AVest Indian Sea Island.s are confined to 20 

 bales of Barbados at 20(/. to 20|c?. 



The stock is exhausted, but spinners are not eager to pur- 

 chase, the demand for fine yarns being limited, particularly 

 for lace purposes, as lace is rather going out of fashion. 



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

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending December 17, is as follows: — 



The market has remained very quiet throughout the 

 week with sales of only 50 bales off in preparation at 34c, 

 In the absence of demand Factors are continuing to hold, for 

 our previous quotations, which we have only to repeat, viz.: 



Extra Fine Islands at 40c. = 22rf. c.i.f. & 5 per cent. 



Fully Fine „ .37c. = 20U7, „ „ „ „ 



Fine „ 35c. = 19id„ „ „ „ 



but to effect sales for quantity, we think they would con- 

 cede Ic. to 2c. from their a-sking prices. 



A METHOD FOR COTTON SELECTION 

 THROUGHOUT THE SEASON. 



The first part of an article on this subject, consist- 

 ing of extracts from ( -ircular No. 6b of the Bureau of 

 Plant Industry of the Ihiited States Department <>f 

 Agriculture, which was issued during August 1910, 

 was given in the last number of the A gricultural Ncivs. 

 The present article furnishes the rest of the information 

 that is of more particular interest to cotton growers in 

 the West Indies. 



SELECTION BY BOLL cuA K.M'TERs. If the farmer is 

 engaged in the selection of a big-boll variety of upland cotton, 

 such as the Triumph, most of the degenerate plants are very 

 easy to recognize, because tliey have small bolls. This fact 

 becomes most apparent in unselected fields about the middle 

 of the season, soon after the earlier bolls have reached full 

 size, but before they begin to open. A little search will 

 show that some of the plants are producing only small bolls. 

 Some small bolls can be found, of course, on normal large- 

 boiled plants, just as small or defective apples can be found 

 on a large fruited tree. Plants that appear in a big-boll 

 variety, but produce only small liolls, no longer represent the 

 variety, but are to he looked upon a» definite variations away 

 from tlie variety. The plants that depart from the charac- 



ters of the parent variety are mostly very inferior: but even 

 if they are not inferior, they ought to lie taken out of the 

 variety to avoid a further increase of diversity through the 

 formation of hylirids. 



The shapes, colours, and surfaces of the bolls also afford 

 differences, of very little importance in themselves, but very 

 useful as indicators in selection to maintain uniformity. 

 Indeed, it is possible in a great majority of cases to judge 

 the quality of the lint correctly in advance by looking at the 

 bolls of a plant, after one is sufficiently familiar with the 

 variety. Plants with shorter bolls are likely to have shorter 

 lint, while narrower bolls indicate less abundant lint. Any 

 pronounced ditierence in the shape of the bolls can be taken 

 to indicate that the plant is a variation or a hybrid that 

 ought to be removed, and the same is true of differences in 

 the colour or in the character of the surface of the bolls. 



Selection Ijy boll characters is not as effective as selec- 

 tion by leaf and stem characters, because the inferior plants 

 have already flowered, and there has been an opportunity 

 for their pollen to be spread about the field. Nevertheless, 

 if the boll selection be made early enough, much of the 

 spreading of pollen in the latter part of the season can 

 lie avoided. An advantage of boll selection is the oppor- 

 tunity that it gives to become better acquainted with the 

 leaf and stem characters of degenerate plants, and better 

 ability to detect such plants early in the season in following 

 years. If selection is deferred until the crop is ripe, the 

 external diflFerences of the plants will have become much less 

 apparent. 



.SELECTION BY SEED AUTi LINT CH.\EACTER.s. More time 



is required for the last selection, in which attention is given 

 to the fertility of the plants and to the characters of the lint 

 and seed. The labour will have lieen greatly lessened liy the 

 previous roguing out of all the plants that gave external evi 

 dence of tendencies to depart from the uniform type of the 

 variet}^, either in the habits of growth, in the characters of the 

 leaves, or in the size and shape of the liolls. Plants that show 

 themselves dehcient in fertility, or in earliness, in comparison 

 with their neighbours, can also be omitted from the last 

 .selection. The examination of the lint is thus narrowed down 

 to the plants that have appeared satisfactory in all other 

 respects. Many planters have made a practice of noticing 

 differences in lint, and arc already well qualified to perform 

 this kind of selection. 



The length and abundance of the lint are compared in 

 the field by the familiar process of straightening it out from 

 the sides of the seed, either by pulling between the thumb 

 and finger or by using a small comb. One 'ir more .samples 

 of the combed out lint from ditferent plants can be held 

 between the fingers of the left hand and thus carried along 

 for ready comparison. The strength of the lint is judged in 



