PLANT BREEDING 33 



ductiveness to such an extent that his neighbors were wanting his corn for 

 seed. Such is always the case with the improvement of any of our crops, 

 and shows that the reward of intelligent effort at improvement is certain. 



IMPROVING THE COTTON PLANT. 



There is no plant grown by our farmers which will yield more ready re- 

 sults from intelligent selection and breeding than the cotton plant, and there 

 is no plant grown in the United States of greater commercial importance. 

 In fact, the greater part of our foreign commerce is founded upon the fact 

 that we lead the world in the production of this great staple, and yet there is 

 no farm plant that has been so persistently neglected by plant breeders. Of 

 course here and there thoughtful men in the Cotton States have done much for 

 the improvement of cotton for their particular section, and for a while the 

 varieties produced by them have a certain popularity. But soon the careless 

 methods of selection among cultivators in general, change the character of 

 the plant, and the ideal plant towards which the originator was working is 

 lost sight of and a deterioration is the result. There is no one point in which 

 there is greater need for intelligent effort on the part of the agriculturists 

 of the Experiment Stations in the Cotton States, than in the improvement of 

 varieties of cotton for the different sections of the cotton belt. In fact, the 

 whole matter of plant breeding should claim the special attention of Station 

 workers, for in no other way can the workers in agriculture and horticulture 

 more efficiently aid the farmer and gardener, than in the production of more 

 prolific plants of the various crops and the increase in the quality of their 

 products. Here and there this matter has been receiving attention, and the 

 real improvement in the cotton plant dates more from the origin of Experi- 

 ment Stations than during any previous time. The cotton grower, like the 

 grain farmer, has too long been aiming at special features in his product, 

 rather than the general development of the whole plant. The corn grower 

 of the South has worked simply for a big ear. He gets this at the expense 

 of prolificacy and gets a tall and ungainly plant. The cotton grower is en- 

 raptured by a big boll, and fails to see that when breeding simply for 

 a big boll he is getting a long legged "weed." No real improvement can 

 be effected in any plant that proceeds upon the selection for a single feature 

 of the plant. The cotton grower wants, of course, as large a boll as possible, 

 but he does not want the large boll at the expense of yield in general. He 

 likes a good length of staple, but he does not want the long staple at the ex- 

 pense of late maturity and weakness in the constitution of the plant. Hence 



