CHAPTER V 

 COTTON VARIETIES 



PROBABLY more than 100 distinct varieties of cotton 

 are being grown in the southern United States. The 

 names representing different varieties will far exceed this 

 number but many of the so-called varieties differ only 

 in name. 



43. What is a variety? There is much difference of 

 opinion as to what constitutes a variety. Generally 

 speaking, a variety may be denned as a subdivision of a 

 species, the individuals of which differ from the remainder 

 of the species in one or more of the typical characters and 

 which propagate true to seed except for simple individual 

 variations. 



Groups of individuals derived from a variety which 

 differ from the original variety only in such qualities as 

 yield or hardiness and do not differ in visible taxonomic 

 characters, are recognized by Webber as strains rather 

 than varieties or races. 



44. Origin of varieties. The existing varieties of 

 cotton owe their origin mainly to the following causes : 



(1) Natural selection as affected by environment. 



(2) Artificial selection. In the making of these selec- 

 tions two general methods have been employed, namely, 

 (a) the method often spoken of as "mass selection" in 

 which the farmer merely selects seed for his general crop 

 from the best plants in his field, no attempt being made to 

 study separately the progeny from the individual plants; 



38 



