COTTON 303 



work of selection, and spread out on tables covered with 

 white cloth. Women who are specially trained in the 

 work select the type showing" the characters desired; that 

 is, a heavy, sound black seed with a green tuft of fuzz at 

 one or both ends. Seed that does not come up to this 

 standard is rejected. The selected seed, as a rule, repre- 

 sents from 60 to 75 per cent, of the whole. 



This may be termed the mechanical side of the seed 

 work, but the scientific side is not lost sight of, and 

 several planters besides the Agricultural Department 

 carry on each season plant selection in nurseries so as 

 to maintain and improve the quality of the lint and the 

 yield of the crop. The methods of selection are based 

 on desirable field characters of the plant, ginning yield 

 of seed-cotton, and the length, fineness, strength, and 

 lustre of the lint. Other work performed on a consider- 

 able scale by the Agricultural Department is the selection 

 of plants showing resistance to certain bacterial and 

 fungoid diseases. 



To give a recent example of the value of this particular 

 line of work, a planter in a wet district sowed last season 

 64 acres with seed of cotton with which no selection work 

 had been done, and 2 acres with seed from plants selected 

 as showing resistance to disease. From the 64 acres he 

 obtained 8J bales, or 3,060 Ib. of lint, and from the 2 acres 

 i bale, or 360 Ib. of lint, or an average yield, under similar 

 conditions, of 48 and 180 Ib. per acre respectively. The 

 price realized for the lint from the 64 acres was at the rate 

 of 2od. per Ib., and that from the 2 acres 22jd. per Ib. 



Arrangements are made with planters to grow special 

 plots of cotton from sed obtained from selected plants 

 at the Experiment Station, and at the present time it is 

 possible to supply from the progeny of these specially 

 selected plants all the seed necessary to meet the require- 

 ments of small growers, who, it might be mentioned, 

 grow on an average about one-fourth of the island's 

 output. 



The work of maintaining the quality and yield of cotton 

 has been greatly facilitated by the enacting of certain 

 legislative measures. Under the Ordinance for the pre- 

 vention of the introduction of pests and diseases, power 

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