122 THE DEVELOPMENT OF RAW COTTON 



the previous chapter, such as the development of the 

 palisades in the seed-coat, and the lengthening and 

 thickening of the lint, appear to be begun simultaneously 

 all over the seed, but completed first at its butt or thick 

 end. Therefore, if the development of any feature is 

 checked a little too soon, irregularity will follow. 



A natural consequence of this is that periods of change 

 are also periods of irregularity. This applies not only to 



distribution on the seed, but also to the mean 

 Uniformity 



and Changes maximum length from seed to seed and boll 

 of Environ- to boll, as may be seen by examining the 

 figures in the Daily Picking Series. When 

 the conditions of the environment are kept constant for 

 any length of time, the lint ultimately ripening from day 

 to day may be good or it may be bad, but it will at least 

 be uniformly one thing or the other, and as such it will 

 be saleable for a definite purpose. On the other hand, 

 when the conditions are changing from one day to another 

 as when soil is drying up the slight variations in the 

 length of the maturation period from boll to boll will in 

 themselves be sufficient to mix better bolls with worse 

 ones. 



Variation from seed to seed within the boll has been 

 extensively discussed by other writers, but its case is 

 covered by the preceding account. 



i 



Summarizing the results of this chapter, we have a 



result of fundamental importance in the confirmation 

 which these Dated Series give to the deduction drawn 

 from developmental evidence, that the same conditions 



