BUREAU OF PLANT INDUSTRY. 323 



Plans for future work. — It is expected during the ensuing year 

 to materially extend the cooperative investigational work on some of 

 the newer field stations operated by this office; and if the necessary 

 arrangements can be effected, it is proposed to establish another field 

 station on one of the projects of the Reclamation Service in New 

 Mexico. 



ALKALI AND DROUGHT RESISTANT PLANT BREEDING. 



The work of breeding crop plants resistant to alkali and drought 

 and of investigating the physiological factors of alkali resistance 

 and drought resistance has been carried on as heretofore under the 

 direction of Mr. T. H. Kearney, Physiologist. Good progress has 

 been made during the past year in breeding improved strains of 

 Egyptian cotton for growing in the arid Southwest, in breeding 

 drought-resistant strains of forage plants for the Great Plains area, 

 in determining from the physiological point of view what constitutes 

 drought resistance, and in working out correlations between the nat- 

 ural vegetation and the capabilities for drought-resistant crop pro- 

 duction of different types of land in the arid portion of the country. 



Egyptian cotton in the Southwest. — The work on Egj'ptian cot- 

 ton is conducted in cooperation with the offices of Western Agricul-'j 

 tural Extension, Crop Acclimatization and Adaptation, and Crop 

 IPhysiology and Breeding Investigations. As a result of the plant- 1 

 breeding work to date, three distinct types have been developed from 

 the seed of the Mit Afifi variety of Egyptian cotton, with which the' 

 acclimatization and breeding experiments were begun eight years ago.' 

 Two of these are so distinct from the parent stock as to constitute new, 

 varieties. They have light-colored fiber and more nearly resemble 

 some of the other Eg}^ptian varieties, such as Nubari and jannovitch. 

 The third has all thediaracters of Mit Afifi, including the character- 

 istic brown-colored fiber, but is more jDroductive and produces fiber 

 of better quality than does the imported seed. This acclimatized 

 Mit Afifi and also one of the new varieties were grown last year on 

 a field scale in Arizona and showed a remarkable degree of uniformity 

 in the characteristics of the plants and fiber. The three best types 

 are being tested this year in several localities in Arizona and Cali- 

 fornia in order to determine to what degree they retain their uni- 

 formitj;- and other desirable characteristics under a variety of cli- 

 matic and soil conditions. 



As a result of the work in 1909 it was proved that the diversity 

 which had previously shown itself in this acclimatized Egyptian cot- 

 ton could be reduced to a minimum by growing carefully selected 

 strains and removing the undesirable plants from the field before 

 flowering. It is evident that by these methods a product can be ob- 

 tained having the uniform staple demanded by spinners of these 

 hi^h-grade cottons. In view of the present relative scarcity and high 

 price of Egj'ptian and other long-staple cottons, it would seem desir- 

 able to ascertain as soon as possible whether the growing of these new 

 cottons can be made commercially successful in the Southwest. Mean- 

 while the plant-breeding work will be continued at various localities 

 in that region, to develop locally adapted strains of the most prom- 

 ising varieties. 



