1890.] 



MICKOSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



103 



somewhat changed by growing the plant in the interior of Florida. 

 The cotton was ginned and the length, 48 millimeters, can only be ap- 

 proximate. The fibre was slightly stained with adhering particles of 

 dust. Diameter, 0.016 to 0.024 millimeters. Resistance to rupture : 

 17.447, 12.156, 14.356, 7.506 grammes ; average, 15. 57S grammes. 



It seems evident from the foregoing, that it is not always the large 

 plant that produces the best condition of the fibre. Experiment seems 

 to determine that the most excellent condition of the fibre is produced 

 only on those plants that are healthy in all their functions, neither too 

 rapid nor slow in their development, and that are given all the advan- 

 tages of judicious cultivation with the proper fertilization and under the 

 most favorable conditions of the atmosphere. In improving the grade 

 of cotton the following must also be carefully noted. The plant must 

 be forced to produce fibre, that is — 



1. Long, and as nearly as possible, uniform in length. 



2. Of uniform diameter throughout. 



3. Flat and ribbon-like, and well twisted. 



The cells must not collapse until well matured, so that the collapsing 

 and twisting will occur with equal intensity throughout the entire 

 length of the tube. 



I will state as a proposition : No plant has a right to a new 

 name unless it is able to produce fibre closely approaching the above 

 conditions. The cultivation of cotton is chiefly for the staple it pro- 

 duces, and every efibrt should be made to improve its quality. 



The Improvement of the Seed. — The seed is the beginning of 

 the new plant, and contains within itself all the future possibilities of 

 the full developed plant it will produce. There is aii old expression 

 that what the child is, so will be the man. This is true of the vegetable 

 as of the animal kingdom. Imperfect seed must produce imperfect 

 plants. The intelligent farmer has often noticed in his fields of cotton, 

 some plants iTiuch larger than others, containing a larger number of 

 well-formed bolls, and with fibre whiter, more silky, and better in 

 quality than on any other plant in the field. If he would select from 

 this plant the bolls that are the largest, the finest, and most perfectly 

 matured, and after ginning the cotton carefully select the seed, reject- 

 ing all that are blasted or imperfectly shaped, and then carefully pro- 

 tect them to prevent fermentation or becoming in any manner damaged 

 until the next planting season, the first important step w^ould be taken. 

 There is no chance in this matter, if we follow closely the laws by 

 which nature performs her perfect work. The cotton seeds that have 

 thus been carefully collected from the first plant must be placed in the 

 best prepared soil, under the best conditions and well cultivated. No 

 cotton of an inferior grade must be planted in the immediate neighbor- 

 hood. In fact, it does not pay to cultivate inferior cotton, and it is best 

 to send all such seeds to the oil mills. When blooms of low grade cot- 

 ton open, insects and winds will soon transport the pollen from them 

 to the pistils of the selected variety and the germs will become depre- 

 ciated by such inferior fertilization. There are a number of insects 

 that visit the flowers of the cotton plant for the nectar they contain ; 

 and in the eflbrt to reach the base of the flower where the nectar is 

 found, their bodies become covered with pollen that is transferred to 

 the stigma where they come in contact with pistils of other flowers. It 



