THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



January 



1911. 



WEST INDIAN COTTON. 



Messrs. Wolstenholine and Holland, of Liverpool, 

 write as follows, under date December 5, with reference 

 to the sales of West Indian Sea Island cotton : — 



The sale.s of West Indian Sea Islands since our last 

 report are confined to ahnut 50 bales, chietiy oddments left 

 over from last season, at 20(/. to 22d., and a few liales of 

 new St. Kitts, the latter lieing on private terms. 



American Sea Islands are firmly held by factors, but 

 spinners are very indiflferent buyers, and are awaiting develop- 

 ments. 



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

 Sea Island cotton in the Southern States, for the week 

 ending December 10, is as follows: — 



The market has been very quiet throughout the week, 

 with sales of only .38 l)ales, which include the crop of Extra 

 Extra Fine, at .52c. In the absence of demand, factors have 

 continued to hold for their previous prices, viz; — 



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



Fully Fine „ 37c. = 20ifZ. „ „ 



Fine „ 35c. = l9ld. „ „ 



but to effect sales for quantity, they would lie willing to 

 accept Ic. lower. 



A METHOD FOR COTTON SELECTION 



THROUGHOQT THE SEASON. 



Circular No. (iU of the Bureau of Plant Industry of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture was 

 issued dui'ing last August, under the title of Cotton 

 Selection ov the Farm hij the Charaders of the Stalls, 

 Leaves and Bolls. Much of the nr;atter contained in 

 this, ap])lying more nearly to West Indian conditions, 

 is extracted for the use of readers of the Agricalfural 

 News; it will be pi-esented in this and the following 

 numbers. 



The jjlan of growing in a separate field the cotton that 

 is to be used for seed has several advantages, but one of the 

 most important is often overlooked. It is the education of 

 the farmer himself, so that he can know his variety by its 

 external character.s, even in the earlier stages of growth. The 

 result of many experiment.') in the acclimatization and breed- 

 ing of cotton shows that the work of selection can lie made 

 much easier and more etfective by giving attention to the 

 external characters of the plants in the field, in.stead of 

 waiting till the crop is ripe, and depending on the seed and 

 lint characters alone. 



DIVERSITY IN UNSELKCTED FIELDS Of UOTTON. lu 



a neglected stock of cotton that has not been receiving any 

 selection at all, the plants are not all equally inferior, but 

 each individual plant is likely to be different from any of ite 

 neighbours. The differences between the individual plants of an 

 un!?elected field correspond to tlis differences between selected 

 varieties. Each plant of an unselected field might be said to 

 represent a ditt'erent variety, for it is generally possible by 

 selection to establish a variety on the basis of the peculiarities 

 of any individual plant. Selection is to be thought of as 

 a process of narrowing the lines of descent, and thus securing 

 a greater resemblance among the progeny. A seed produced 

 by self-fertilization may be said to have only one parent, 

 much as with plants propagated from cuttings. 



If selection proves successful, the result is to establish 

 the expression of the characters of the original selected plant 

 in all of its jirogeny, so that all the individuals of the stock 

 shall show only the one set of characters, instead of the 

 characters of the whole miscellaneous group from which the 

 original plant was .selected. 



DETEKIORATION OF VAUIETIF.S WITHOUT CROSSIXG. The 



general result that is secured through .selection is to keep the 

 characters of the inferior ancestors from coming into expres- 

 sion; but selection does not seem to have any power complete- 

 ly to destroy the characters of the inferior ancestors so as to 

 prevent their continued transmission for any number of 

 generations, and their subsequent reappearance in individual 

 variations. The work of the breeder is never completely 

 fini-shed or absolutely successful. Though very high degrees 

 of uniformity are attained by careful breedcr.s, such uniform- 

 ity is not a permanent condition. It has always to be pre- 

 served by further selection. 



Each new variation constitutes, in effect, a new variety. 

 The subsequent cro.ssing of the difierent variations with each 

 other, and with the parent type, produces hybrids just as if 

 the variety had never been pure, or as if it had been mixed 

 with seed of other v.arieties by intention or by accident. 



WHY SELECTION MU.ST HE MAINTAINED. Selection, as 

 applied to an imiiroved variety of cotton, is simply a means 

 of keeping undesirable characters out of expression. One of 

 the jtrincipal objects to fie gained by detailed study of hered- 

 itj' in cotton is to learn the method of selection that keeps 

 the undesirable characters most thoroughly suppressed. 



VALUE OF KXTEKNAL CnAU.UTEItS IN SELF.l.TING COTTON. 



By using external characters in selection, it is possible to 

 secure a large measure of protection against the inheritance 

 and subsequent expression of the characters of degenerate 

 individuals. Studies of degenerate variations of several 

 difiVrent types of cotton have .shown changes in the external 

 or vegetative characters, as well as in those of the fruit and 

 seed. It seldom, if^ever, liappens that a cotton plant makes 



