35** COTTON 



as they stimulate boll-shedding, favour boll anthracnose, 

 and delay harvest. 



The writer greatly favours the small type of cotton bush 

 for Highland cultivation for the following reasons : 



(a) They mature early. 



(b) They reduce cover for boll worm and cotton 

 stainers. 



(c) They are never cast by storms. 



(d) They are never so severely attacked by cotton aphis. 



(e) They do not favour the spread of anthracnose. 



It will be found that once a type is carefully selected 

 from pure acclimatized seed the branching character 

 remains constant in the offspring of Upland cottons; this 

 is borne out in many varieties of Upland cotton, one of 

 the most marked examples being " Jackson's limbless. " 

 Egyptian varieties, however, are very unstable under new 

 conditions, and the decrease in the crops obtained from 

 Egyptian seed which has been grown in Nyasaland for 

 a few years, as compared with those obtained from seed 

 freshly imported from Egypt, is largely due to the in- 

 creasing percentage of tall, imperfectly branched plants; 

 in the absence of careful systematic selection for type, 

 the writer always recommends the use of freshly imported 

 Egyptian seed. 



SYSTEM OF SELECTION RECOMMENDED. 

 First year in field. 



(1) Sow the best seed procurable of the variety under 

 selection. 



(2) Commence selecting individual plants a few weeks 

 before harvest, paying special attention to the points 

 discussed under " Plant Characters worthy of Con- 

 sideration/' 



(3) Mark each plant separately, harvest separately, and 

 place the seed-cotton into bags attached to each plant. 



First year in laboratory. 



(1) Discard all bags with weak staple. 



(2) Discard all bags with staple less than if gin. (long 

 staple Upland). 



