64 MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 



[Circular sent to recipients of seed of Sea Island Cotton No. 224.] 



SEA ISLAND COTTON NO. 224. 



U. S. Department of Agriculture, 



Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 Washington, D. C. February 1, 1903. 



Dear Sir: We send you herewith one peck of seed of Sea Island 

 cotton "No. 224." This is a selection resistant to the wilt disease. It 

 is distributed for trial under our Department number rather than as a 

 named variety, but if it proves desirable to continue its cultivation, a 

 name will be given to it later. 



It was originated by selecting from a field badly affected by wilt two 

 plants that had remained healthy. The seed obtained was planted on 

 wilt-infected land the two years following, where it continued to resist 

 the disease, although adjoining cotton was killed. These two successful 

 trials indicate that its wilt resistance is well fixed, and it only remains 

 to establish in this strain the desired commercial qualities, such as 

 length and fineness of staple, uniformity, and productivity. 



"No. 224" was developed from one of the coarser kinds of cotton 

 grown on the Sea Islands, and more attention was paid to securing wilt 

 resistance than fine quality. For this reason it is not equal to the best 

 varieties grown on the Sea Islands, though it is of the grade of cotton 

 for which there is most demand in the market. The price obtained 

 for the crop of 1902 was 24 cents per pound, but the factor informed 

 us that it was marketed "in such a bright and showy condition that it 

 was placed on that account in a higher grade than its staple warranted." 

 These facts are stated plainly in order that the planters who test it may 

 not be disappointed in the results. The Department recommends it 

 for its wilt resistance only, but believes that it is worthy of trial as a 

 basis from which desirable strains can be developed by the methods of 

 selection familiar to Sea Island planters. The fact that this is not a 

 fine cotton should not be taken as an indication that quality need be 

 sacriticed in securing resistance to wilt. Our experience leads us to 

 believe that wilt-resistant strains can be obtained of any degree of 

 fineness desired, depending on the quality of the plant chosen at the 

 beginning of the selection. 



The method of selection that we have found to give best results in 

 breeding wilt-resistant varieties' is essentially the same as that usually 

 practiced for improvement of quality. It is necessary that the first 

 selections should be made in a held known to be thoroughly infected 

 with the wilt disease, so that every healthly plant can be assumed to 

 be resistant. Select onl} r those plants that show no trace of the wilt 

 disease. Several of these most prominent resistant plants should be 

 marked and examined critically. Eight or ten that have the finest 

 and longest staple and are most productive should be retained, and 

 the seed of each plant kept separate. The next year these lots of seed 



