COTTON SELECTION ON THE FARM. 5 



It would be ven^ difRcult to imagine a condition more likely to dis- 

 courage any effort toward the improvement of the crop than the sys- 

 tem of large public gins that require a continuous charge of cotton 

 for the machinery to work. Under ordinary conditions of ginning 

 every farmer is likely to get his seed well mixed with the seed of some 

 other farmer, and may have a sprinkling from the whole neighbor- 

 hood. On account of the mechanical advantages of the large modern 

 ginning establishments and the large amounts of capital invested in 

 the i)resent equii)nients, any complete or sudden change seems entirely 

 out of the question. 



It is possible to avoid much of the difficulty in a way that is not 

 very expensive and would save every year many times what it would 

 cost. Small separate gins are being installed in some localities for 

 ginning the cotton that is to furnish seed for planting. The same 

 power can be used and the lint can be baled with that from the large 

 gins, but the seed can be kept entirely separate. As soon as farmers 

 realize the importance of keeping their seed separate, ginners will find 

 it to their advantage to install the separate small gins in order to 

 attract the custom of the more intelligent farmers who select their 

 own seed. It is also to be expected that many public-spirited owners 

 of ginning establishments will provide separate gins to encourage 

 the farmers along the line of seed selection. Doubtless the time will 

 come when all public gins will be equipped to handle separate stocks 

 of seed without mixing, as a result of a general recognition of the value 

 of such precautions to the whole cotton-growing community. 



RESULTS OF MIXING VARIETIES. 



Apart from the question of higher prices for longer or more uniform 

 staples, there is a relation between uniformit}^ and yield. The farmer 

 might naturally suppose that the selection of seed from the most fer- 

 tile plants would insure the largest possible yields, even if the plants 

 are not all of exactly the same type or strain. Yet there are scientific 

 facts which show that the mixing of varieties can eventually affect 

 the yield of fiber, as well as the quality. The plants of a mixed stock 

 are quite as likety to differ in carliness and productiveness as in the 

 length and strength of the fiber. The same factors that render a 

 mixture of varieties deficient in uniformity of fiber also tend to 

 decrease the yield. 



The bad effects of mixing varieties are not generally appreciated 

 because the results are not likely to appear at first. If two equalty 

 productive varieties were really pure and uniform to begin with, the 

 yield would not diminish in the first 3'ear simply ])ccause they were 

 grown in a mixed field instead of being planted in separate fields. In 

 the next year the yield might still be unaffected, or might even be 



[Cir. 66] 



