6 BULLETTISI" 1111, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



and handling the crop are as necessary as improved varieties. The 

 special biological problems of breeding and maintaining varieties 

 have been solved, but not the general agronomic and economic prob- 

 lems of providing for the utilization of varieties. Not only the facts 

 regarding varieties and textile qualities of different kinds of fiber 

 need to be investigated by the manufacturers, but also the produc- 

 tion and handling of the crop, the whole field of activity that lies 

 between the breeding of varieties and the uses of cotton goods by 

 the consuming public. For lack of such knowledge the manufac- 

 turers are unable to take a really practical and constructive interest 

 in the development of the cotton industry as a whole and are unable 

 to protect themselves against the adverse tendencies of the commer- 

 cial sj^stem. Thus there is great need of closer study by manufac- 

 turers of the underlying commercial and agricultural factors that de- 

 termine the production of good or poor fiber.^ 



SUPERIOR VARIETIES NOT UTILIZED. 



No other plant product figures in our industrial civilization more 

 largely than cotton, and the need of uniformity is greater with cotton 

 than with any other crop. Fiber that is not uniform does not spin 

 well nor make strong, durable fabrics. More labor is required to use 

 inferior fiber, because the threads break more frequently in spinning 

 and weaving. If the fiber is of good quality all the work of produc- 

 ing and manufacturing cotton is done to better advantage and the 

 public is served with better goods. It seems not improbable that 

 the value for textile purposes of most of the cotton grown in the 

 United States could be at least doubled by using superior varieties, 

 but such utilization of varieties is not possible without adequate 

 supplies of pure seed, which are not maintained under the present 

 system of production. 



The need of improving the cotton crop is being recognized in all 

 the principal regions of production. Experiment stations in dif- 

 ferent parts of the world are engaged in the breeding or testing of 

 varieties of cotton and devising improved cultural methods. Each 

 of the cotton-growing regions has its own series of diverse forms 

 and variations to study, in addition to efforts in many countries to 

 introduce foreign kinds and adapt them to the local conditions. 

 Nevertheless, only a very limited application of the results of breed- 

 ing investigations is to be expected, either in the United States or in 

 other cotton-growing regions, unless the organization of the industry 

 can be improved so that superior varieties can be utilized. 



Kich possibilities of improvement have been shown in the species 

 and varieties of cotton that have been studied intensively. Many 



== Cook, O. F. Commercial parasitism in the cotton industry. In Nature, v. 105, no. 

 2644, p. 548-549. 



