PEDIGREE 17 



old crop, as well as by bees carrying foreign pollen from 

 a distance, and so making bastards with unknown pollen 

 parents. 



There is nothing magical or unpre vent able about the 

 deterioration of cotton varieties, and every 

 Deterioration cage known can be exp i a i ne( j i n terms of 

 of Varieties. 



crossing, seed mixture, and natural selection. 



This discussion may appear to have wandered a 

 long way from the cotton fibre, but it is necessary that 

 the principles involved should be understood, because 

 the purification of cotton varieties, and their maintenance 

 in a pure state, is almost the only big advance in the 

 technique of cotton-supply which is economically practi- 

 cable at the present day. Research is showing more and 

 more clearly that uniformity is the chief thing needed by 

 the trade, and lacking in the field; and while it is quite 

 possible to produce useless rubbish from a perfectly pure 

 strain of ideal properties, perfect cotton cannot be produced 

 from an impure strain. Moreover, cotton is grown by, and 

 dependent upon, cheap indigenous labour. Such labour 

 is not easily reformed to Western requirements, simply 

 because such reformation would not pay the labourer, 

 and the provision of pure seed in place of impure does not 

 interfere with any of his traditional or casual methods. 

 The cultivation of pure strains of cotton, whether they 

 be selected elementary species, purified exist- 

 ing varieties, or new strains synthesized by 

 Kenewal. < 



crossing, is only practicable with a system 



of seed renewal. The causes leading to deterioration 

 cannot be avoided in the field, but they can be avoided 



2 



