COTTON CULTURE 45 



iveness and other desirable qualities. The following on 

 this subject is taken from Bulletin No. 75 of the Georgia 

 Experiment Station (1906): 



"In the early fall every farmer should make careful 

 selections of the best bolls from the plants he judges to 

 be the best. The seed cotton from each of these bolls 

 should be placed in a separate package, and given a num- 

 ber to correspond with the plant which produced it. The 

 total product of each plant should likewise be separately 

 preserved, noting the number of bolls as well as the total 

 weight, and finding out the percentage yield of lint. Hav- 

 ing now all the facts attainable in regard to each plant, 

 it will be easy to determine approximately which is the 

 best plant, and to plant the seed from the reserved first- 

 selected bolls under the most favorable conditions. The 

 operation should be repeated every year, using the main 

 product of the best stalks to plant a seed patch, and the 

 seeds from the few selected first-choice bolls to plant the 

 next breeding patch." 



The possibilities of the improvement of our varieties 

 of cotton are very large. There is no known reason why 

 the size of bolls, the percentage yield of lint, the length, 

 fineness, and strength of the fibers may not be greatly 

 increased by careful selection and cross-breeding. Why 

 not increase the size of the bolls to " 16 to i " or until each 

 boll shall yield one ounce of seed cotton? Why not in- 

 crease the percentage yield of lint until it shall average 

 fifty per cent or higher? 



Possibly, if all the money and energy that have been 



