104 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RAW COTTON 



bad weather at flowering, producing severe water- 

 shortage, for example, followed by excellent weather for 

 the rest of the life of the boll, would result in a low out- 

 turn, rather short lint, and yet the lint might ultimately 

 recover and thicken to normal strength. 



Thus ginning out-turn is not necessarily connected 

 with any other characteristic of the lint, except when 

 self -poisoning is involved; but in the gamut of a series 

 of cotton bolls ripening during a period of more than two 

 months, the chances are that generally a high out-turn 

 will be accompanied by generally good length, and to a 

 rather less extent by good strength. 



An interesting side-issue of this interpretation is that 



ginning out-turn should be more variable than lint 



S e ial d ^ en ^ n ' an ^ this i n its turn more variable 



General than strength, if we take only a uniform 



Behaviour period of weather lasting a few days, while 

 seed weight should be the least variable of 

 all. Actually, the extreme percentage differences between 

 groups of bolls ripened under the same conditions were 

 about 2 per cent, in seed weight, 5 per cent, in lint 

 length, 8 per cent, in breaking strain, and 16 per cent, in 

 ginning out-turn. This is due to the different lengths of 

 the period in which determination of the respective 

 characters takes place, seed weight being affected over a 

 long period, and out-turn over a very short one, so that 

 an accidental circumstance lasting for a few hours will 

 scarcely make any impress on the former, but will almost 

 entirely determine the latter. 



Again, however, considering the average of the chances 



