NOTES ON THE INCIDENCE AND EFFECT OF STERILITY 

 AND OF CROSS-FERTILISATION IN THE 

 INDIAN COTTONS. 



BY 



WEW VORn 

 BOTANICAL 



H. MARTIN LEAKE, Qakdcw, 



Economic Botaniiit to OorPinment of the United Frorinces, 



AND 



RAM PRASAD, 



Assistant to the Economic Botnnlst. 



The subject of tlie economic significance of Natural crossing 

 in India has been dealt with in a recent memoir* and it is, 

 therefore, unnecessary to do more here than recapitulate in the 

 briefest manner the reasons which necessitate, prior to any attempt 

 at improvement in a crop, the determination of the extent of cross- 

 fertilisation normally taking place. 



The methods which can be adopted to procure improvement 

 in a particular crop have been classified by Cookf, and in the choice 

 of method the expermienter must be very largely guided by two 

 considerations, the extent to which cross-fertilisation takes place 

 under normal field conditions, and the degree of sterihty which 

 may result in plants subjected to artificial self- fertilisation carried 

 out through a series of successive generations. 



The ultimate aim of all scientific work on the agricultural 

 crops is not only the production of a type suited to the particular 

 conditions under which it will be grown and having a produce im- 

 proved either in quahty or quantity, but such production on a 



* Memoirs, Dept. of Apr. in India, 111, No. 0. 



t U. S. Dept. of Agr,. Bur. of Plant Industry, Bull. 1-16. 



