98 COTTON 



thing like fifteen bushels of seed at picking time. 

 This quantity in turn will give selected seed for 

 fifteen acres the following year. 



Continue to select one hundred of the choicest 

 bolls each year for your seed plot of the succeeding 

 year. 



Such a system of seed selection should be 

 perpetually practised by planters throughout the 

 South, and should of course improve the seed stock 

 to a high degree, greatly increasing the productive- 

 ness and greatly accentuating all the desirable 

 qualities of the plant. 



THE SEED PLOT 



Locate your seed plot on a soil offering conditions 

 similar to those of the rest of your cotton area. To 

 locate your plot on a sandy soil, for example, if 

 the main crop is to be grown on a rich, heavy, 

 clay formation, would be manifest folly. 



Select a type of soil, then, like that on which the 

 general crop is to be cultivated, but enrich it; 

 for you will get the best and most vigorous seed 

 from plants well nurtured and grown under most 

 favorable conditions. You will make no mistake 

 in fertilizing well and following with thorough 

 cultivation throughout the growing season. 



STUDY INDIVIDUAL PLANTS 



By a study of individual plants you can carry 

 the selection of your cotton still further. No two 

 plants are alike in every detail. They vary in a 

 hundred and one ways. They vary in their 

 ability to transmit superior qualities to their 

 progeny. And this is an important consideration. 



