oHe-variety cottojst communities. 7 



superior strains have been developed, and the methods of breeding 

 have been improved until they are far in advance of methods of utili- 

 zation of varieties. But in spite of the value of good varieties being 

 recognized, the need of special precautions for large-scale production 

 of superior fiber has received very little consideration. Instead of 

 select, uniform stocks being isolated and preserved by continued 

 selection, new varieties usually are mongrelizecl and begin to " run 

 out " as soon as they are planted on a commercial scale. While this 

 mongrelizing system is followed it is impossible to keep varieties uni- 

 form or to develop large stocks of pure seed. The sj^'stem of mixed- 

 variety production has been tested on an enormous scale and for a 

 long period of years and leaves no doubt of its adverse effects. No 

 general or complete utilization of superior varieties seems possible 

 under the present system of miscellaneous planting of different sorts. 



Though it seemed reasonable to suppose that commercial seed firms 

 would maintain the selection of superior stocks and meet the public 

 demand for pure seed, dealers have the same difficulties as the farmers 

 themselves in maintaining the production of pure seed. Most of the 

 commercial seed is raised by farmers without special isolation of the 

 fields and without precautions of separate ginning. Dealers have no 

 way tp get large quantities of pure seed unless they deal with one- 

 variety communities or go into cotton farming on a large scale, in 

 addition to conducting their business as seed merchants. To be effec- 

 tive for keeping seed pure the scale of farming must be large enough 

 to provide isolation and separate ginning, or, in other words, to form 

 a separate cotton community for producing the seed supplies of each 

 variety handled, which for most seedsmen is out of the question. 



Efforts that some of the more enterprising seed firms have made 

 to supply themselves with high-quality seed have been abandoned, 

 because no way was found to develop and maintain uniform stocks, 

 even when very desirable novelties had been originated. Without 

 doubt, reliable dealers will buy their stocks of seed from one-variety 

 communities as soon as there is a sufficient volume of production of 

 pure seed to meet the commercial demand. In the early stages of 

 development of a new variety or select strain, general distribution, 

 by sale or otherwise, is undesirable, because most of the seed that is 

 sent out in small quantities is lost by becoming mixed with other 

 varieties. Production of the pure seed on a practical scale is essen- 

 tial, whether handled later through commercial seed firms or from 

 one community to another. 



DISTRIBUTION OF NEW VARIETIES INEFFECTIVE. 



When systematic cotton breeding was first undertaken by the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, it was supposed that 



