10 RESULTS OF COTTON EXPERIMENTS IN 1911. 



mixing of varieties is a serious obstacle to the improvement of the 

 industry. 



In a community that planted only one kind of cotton the crossing 

 of varieties in adjacent fields and the mixing of seed in gins would 

 be avoided, selection could be made more effective, and the produc- 

 tion of a larger quantity of uniform fiber would enable growers to 

 obtain higher prices. The danger of weevil injury would be dimin- 

 ished if communities could also agree upon dates of planting and make 

 a combined effort to have the fields cleared of stalks early in the fall. 

 Special attention should be given to establishing improved varieties 

 and methods of selection in communities organized for the produc- 

 tion of a single type of cotton.^ 



METHODS OF DISTRIBUTING SUPERIOR VARIETIES. 



A study has been made of the results of sending out seed of im- 

 proved varieties of cotton through the Office of Congressional Seed 

 Distribution to see whether the usefulness of the system could be 

 increased. The custom has been to send the seed out in 1-peck 

 packages, with the idea of enabhng the farmer to plant the new 

 variety on a field basis by the second or third je&r. But there are 

 several reasons why much of the seed is wasted, or at least fails to 

 serve the intended purpose. 



Many of the packages are not used for planting, being sent to people 

 who are not growing cotton. Some of them go to farmers who do 

 not "bother" with such a small quantity of seed. Many farmers 

 plant the improved seed by the side of other cotton, or even mix it 

 with their local variety before planting, with an idea that the whole 

 stock can be improved in this way. Very few farmers observe the 

 precautions necessary to avoid crossing with other varieties in the 

 field or mixing the seed at the gin. To avoid admixture of seed the 

 gin has to be thoroughly cleaned out. This means extra time and 

 trouble that many farmers are unwilhng to take. The purity of the 

 new stock is usually destroyed in the fhrst season. 



After the cotton is grown other difficulties appear in the separate 

 picking, ginning, and marketing of a single bale or a part of a bale 

 of a different kind of fiber, especially if the new variety is one that 

 produces a longer staple than the local sorts. IVIixed bales, contain- 

 ing two kinds of cotton, are refused by buyers. These difficulties 

 are often avoided by selhng the small stock of improved cotton in 

 the seed, so that the variety is lost to the farmer. Only a small 

 part of the seed that is sent out through the general distribution is 

 really made use of for introducing the new variety into cultivation. 



1 A more extensive statement of the advantages to be secured by the organization of cotton-growing 

 communities may be found in the Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture for 1911, pp. 453-406. 



[Cir. 96] 



