336 



THE FORAGE AND FIBER CROPS IN AMERICA 



First Year 



The first year five * or more plants are selected from any field of the type 

 it is desired to improve, the larger the field and the more rigid the selection 

 the better. The diagram assumes for clearness that only one plant has been 

 selected, but it is important that more than one plant be taken, since fre- 

 quently a fine appearing plant fails to transmit its characteristics. 

 Second Year 



Five hundred or more seeds are selected from each plant and planted the 

 next year. When these plants reach the proper stage of maturity the entire 

 progeny should be examined to see whether the plant selected the first year 

 shows strong transmitting power. If satisfactory, select several of the best 



3oYEAR 4THYEAR 57HYEAR 



SELECT PtANT 



SELECT PLANTf 1 



Diagram illustrating method of selecting cotton 

 (After Webber) 



plants; if not, reject all. From the specially selected plants of this second 

 generation select a single plant to be handled exactly in the same way as the 

 selections made the first year. The seed from the remaining selected plants 

 are retained to plant a seed patch of five acres in the third year. 

 Third Year 



The third year there will be grown 500 or more plants of each of the in- 

 dividual selections, and as many five-acre seed patches for seed for general 

 planting as there were individuals of the first year whose progeny was con- 

 sidered worth propagating. 

 Fourth Year 



This year there will be seed for general planting from the five-acre seed 

 patches of the previous year; five-acre seed patches from the specially selected 



1 In the careful pedigree breeding of ordinary cottons probably 25 or no re 

 superior plants should be selected. 



