COTTON 45 



the road. We know another farmer who by a few 

 years' seed selection has increased the yield of cot- 

 ton thus improved from 400 to 600 pounds while 

 seed selected in the old way grown on similar land 

 and under similar conditions still makes its bare 400 

 pounds an acre. Fifty per cent, increase from 

 four years' selection of seed ! 



Of course, where a special type of cotton has been 

 nurtured and improved through a long period of 

 years' seed selection has increased the yield of cot- 

 results can be obtained than with ordinary farm- 

 bred seed ; and when our farmers come to a proper 

 appreciation of this fact, a long step toward the 

 doubled yield will have been made by this one re- 

 form. Thus one of our State Departments of 

 Agriculture, speaking of a five-year test of cotton 

 varieties ( with practically the same conditions of soil, 

 fertilization and cultivation) , declares that in 1900, 

 in a test of eight varieties the difference between 

 the variety yielding the largest amount of seed cot- 

 ton per acre, and the one the smallest, was 565 

 pounds; in 1901 and 1902 in tests of seven varieties 

 each, the differences were 520 and 790 pounds re- 

 spectively; in 1903, 662 1-2 pounds when nine 

 varieties were incorporated; and 725 2-5 pounds 

 difference in 1904 in a test of twenty-one varieties. 



In other words, one man uses intelligence in seed 

 selection; another man does not; both work equally 

 hard; both have land of equal value; both expend 

 the same amount for fertilizers but the scientific 

 cotton farmer gets from 500 to 700 pounds more 

 per acre than the thoughtless clodhopper. 



So much for what we may accomplish by seed 

 selection alone. 



