16 COTTON SELECTION ON THE FARM. 



and the petals have large purple spots inside, at the base of the petals. 

 The petal spots are lacldng on nearly all varieties of Upland cotton, 

 but occur occasionally in some of the eastern small-boiled types, such 

 as King. Egyptian plants with pale yellow petals or pale purple 

 spots are very likely to have small bolls and short lint, and should be 

 rogued out as soon as they can be recognized. 



A careful grower of Egyptian cotton, willing to take all possible 

 precautions to guard the purity and uniformity of his stock, could 

 make four selections corresponding to the four different kinds of 

 characters that enable him to detect inferior variations. Young 

 plants, before the age of flowering, can be selected by the characters 

 of their leaves, stalks, and habits of growth. When flowering begins 

 the field can be gone over to throw out the pale-flowered individuals. 

 After the bolls begin to reach full size, small-boiled plants may be 

 rejected. When the crop is mature a judgment can be made of 

 the fertihty of the plants and of the characters of the hnt and seed. 

 With Upland cotton the absence of color differences in the flowers 

 leaves only three selections to be made, though it is not impossible 

 that degenerate plants may also be distinguishable by floral differ- 

 ences. Plants of Egyptian cotton that have small bolls are likely 

 to have small flowers, and it may be that this will prove to be the 

 case in Upland cotton also. If other varieties have been allowed to 

 cross with the King cotton, the hybrids are Ukely to show the purple 

 spots on the bases of the petals. 



PICKING OF SELECTED SEED. 



The picking of the seed of select plants can be managed in a variety 

 of ways. The plants can be marked with tags or by tying on little 

 strips of cloth near the top of the main stalk. Stripping the leaves 

 off the stalk near the top is another way to mark select plants. 

 Marks on the ground made by drawing the foot out from the base of 

 each select plant may suffice if pickers of the select seed are to follow 

 closely after the man who does the selecting, but should not be 

 trusted if there is to be any delay. A few exceptional plants desired 

 for individual selections can be specially marked with different tags 

 or with cloth of a different color, or they can be picked by the selector 

 himself into separate bags, thus avoiding all possible danger of mis- 

 take by other pickers. 



Sometimes it is desirable to separate a field that is being picked 

 for seed purposes into three groups or grades. Plants of the first 

 grade can be marked as above to be picked first. The second group 

 of plants that do not depart from the type but are not of especial 

 excellence or fertihty can be left unmarked, wliile undesirable plants 



[Cir. 66] 



