104 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [May, 



is readily seen, therefore, that if plants of an inferior grade are growing 

 and blooming in the immediate neighborhood of the selected varieties, 

 the insects will soon convey the pollen from the inferior to the superior 

 plant and the seed that will be produced will contain a germ with 

 qualities of the inferior plant. This work of the insects might explain 

 to some extent why it is that improved seeds in a few years degenerate 

 so badly. If the selection of the seed is repeated from year to year, 

 and no inferior cotton planted near enough to vitiate with its pollen by 

 means of insects or wind, and if seasons are favorable, there seems to 

 be no reason why practically perfect plants may not be produced. 



The Character of the Soil. — It goes without saying that a soil 

 in the first place must contain those mineral elements of plant food in a 

 most available form that the cotton necessarily requires for its full de- 

 velopiuent and maturity. This information is obtained by a chemical 

 analysis of the plant with all its products, and a careful examination of 

 the soil by means of tests made with the growing plant and fertilizers 

 now so well understood by most intelligent farmers. 



Besides the ingredients comprising the soil it should have certain 

 ph3'sical properties, without which it would be wholly inadequate for 

 the purposes of producing well-matured plants. It should have the 

 power to absorb and retain moisture, so that in times of drought, in 

 August and September, when seed and fibre are to be formed, and 

 when diminished leaf activity is desirable, the soil should have sufii- 

 cient moisture in composition to enable the roots to draw it up into the 

 plant at a time when most needed. The soil must be so friable that 

 when rains fall the moisture will sink and not stagnate about the roots. 



The Condition of the Weather. — This factor we cannot con- 

 trol, but we can at least make the most of what has been given us. 

 This southern country is peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of cotton 

 because of its sunny climate. This plant requires a warm atmosphere 

 for its full development, and hence it produces fibre in diminished 

 cjuantity and perfection in more northern than southern latitudes. The 

 high heat of a midday summer's sun seems not to injure cotton as it 

 does corn and other like plants. Cotton is decidedly a sun plant. 



The proper supply of moisture is of equal importance with tempera- 

 ture. The plant will stand great heat, provided it is not growing in a 

 very dry atmosphere, and is in a soil that can retain moisture. Ac- 

 cording to Mallet moisture may be supplied to the cotton plant in sev- 

 eral ways : 



1. " The atmosphere may contain a greater or less amount of water 

 in the state of vapor up to the so-called point of saturation. 



2. " The atmosphere may be supersatiu'ated, or, in other words, 

 rain may occur. 



3. " The soil may contain greater or less amount of water intimately 

 united with it, whether by adhesion or in chemical combination, such 

 water as is rapidly absorbed from the air by dried soil, and can only be 

 expelled by high temperature. This water does not render the soil 

 moist to the touch. 



4. " The soil maybe supersaturated and rendered moist or wet. The 

 larger amount of water that is taken by the cotton plant in the first 

 (atmospheric vapor) and third ways (soil water absorbed from the air 

 under ordinary conditions), and the smaller amount that it receives in 



