B. P. I.-588. 



COTTON SELECTION ON THE FARM BY THE CHAR- 

 ACTERS OF THE STALKS, LEAVES, AND 1»LLS. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The plan of growing in a separate field tlie 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 characters even in the earlier 

 stages of growth. The result of many experiments in the acclimatiza- 

 tion and breeding of cotton shows that the work of selection can be 

 made much easier and more effective by giving attention to the 

 external characters of the plants in the field instead of waiting till 

 the crop is ripe and depending on the seed and lint characters alone. 



The advantages that have been urged for the separate seed plat are 

 the keeping of the select stock from crossing with the general field 

 planting, the giving of better conditions and care, the better oppor- 

 tunity of individual selection by having the best plants together 

 instead of scattered in the general field, and the easier avoidance of 

 admixture of seed in the fall by the separate picking and ginning of 

 the cotton from the seed plat. Each of these considerations is of 

 distinct practical importance, but the seed plat has one more possi- 

 bility that may bring us still nearer to the desired result of better 

 and more uniform cro])s of cotton. Every farmer who is intelligent 

 and careful enough to maintain a separate seed plat should be able to 

 see the importance of going one step farther and making full use of 

 the opportunity for improvement with which he is already provided. 



It is possible to apply to the cotton crop the same methods of 

 roguing that are used to maintain the uniformity of high-grade varie- 

 ties of garden plants. A cabbage or a beet that shows itself inferior 

 or that departs from the characters of its variety is not kept to grow 

 seed, or even allowed to open its blossoms in the same field with the 

 plants that remain "true to type." The fact that the lint of the 

 cotton seed is the part used, instead of the leaves or the roots, easily 

 explains why so much attention has been given to the characters of 

 the seed and so little to those of other parts of the plant. In reality 

 the habits of growth and other external characters not only have 



[Cir. 66] 3 



