18 COTTON SELECTION ON THE FARM. 



uniform the variety may have been in the seed plat or in the fields 

 in the preceding 3^ear, attention should still be given to the removal 

 of any degenerate plants that appear. A new or unfavorable 

 piece of ground or a bad season may bring out an unusually large 

 number of degenerate individuals, and if these are allowed to remain 

 in the field and cross-fertilize with the good plants the whole stock 

 may be seriously injured. A single season's neglect may destroy 

 the benefits of many years of careful work. 



USE OF PROGENY ROWS IN SELECTION. 



Selection of a high-grade variety of cotton can be somewhat sim- 

 plified and also rendered more effective, if the farmer is willing to 

 take the additional precaution of saving the seed of each select plant 

 separately in order to plant a part of it in a separate row the follow- 

 ing season. It is very easy to buy a few cheap paper bags from the 

 grocer, and the seed may be kept in these till the time of planting 

 comes. 



A slight amount of extra labor is also required to plant the progeny 

 rows by hand. The number of seeds obtained from an average plant 

 of upland cotton is not large, and it is desirable to hold as many of 

 them in reserve as possible. The rows have also to be numbered 

 or otherwise marked to identify them with the parent plants and the 

 seed that is held in reserve. 



If there are no facilities for the separate ginning of the small quan- 

 tities of seed that come from individual plants, the seed can be 

 planted without ginning. Mr. E. B. Boykin, who has carried on a 

 large series of such experiments in South Carolina, reports that seed 

 planted with the lint germinates as readily as with the lint removed, 

 but this method is not advised for dry regions, where even the fuzz 

 of the seed may interfere with germination. Smooth-seeded varie- 

 ties have been found to germinate better than those with fuzzy seeds 

 when planted in dry ground in Texas. In Texas and other dry 

 regions there would undoubtedly be a demand for very small gins 

 that would clean individual lots of seed without mixing. Machines 

 of this kind could be of very simple construction and need not cost 

 more than a few dollars. Such an invention would be of much 

 benefit to the cotton industry even if it did not yield very large profits 

 to the manufacturer. Rows of cotton raised in this way from the 

 seed of individual plants of the same stock may show very distinct 

 differences in vigor, productiveness, and uniformity. The com- 

 parison of whole rows instead of uidividual plants is an easier and 

 more effective method of selection. If one row compares unfavor- 

 ably with the next, the whole of the inferior row may be rejected 

 without going over the individual plants in detail. The selection is 



[Cir. GGJ 



