ONE-VAEIETY COTTON COMMUNITIES. 19 



Organized communities will not change varieties until definite ad- 

 vantages have been shown to justify a change by the whole com- 

 munity instead of by individual farmers. Intelligent communities 

 will very properly avoid any new variety that does not come from a 

 responsible source, well authenticated and with a definitely deter- 

 mined commercial status. The danger to the industry and loss to the 

 farming public that result from introducing inferior varieties, or 

 even too many good varieties, are being recognized in Egypt, in a 

 proposal that has been made to license the introduction of new varie- 

 ties and thus keep irresponsible parties from distributing undesir- 

 able sorts. 



COMMUNITY PURE SEED THE BEST. 



With one variety properly isolated and selected under local con- 

 ditions, the seed not only can be kept pure and uniform but is likely 

 to give better results than any seed that can be obtained from other 

 districts. The degeneration that results from the crossing of dif- 

 ferent varieties no doubt is the basis of the popular idea that cotton 

 varieties soon " run out '' and that " fresh seed " must be brought 

 from other districts. Though selection must be maintained to pre- 

 serve a high degree of uniformity in any stock, deterioration is much 

 more rapid if crossing takes place. The progenies of hybrid plants 

 show large niunbers of inferior individuals that are the most con- 

 spicuous evidence of degeneration. In this sense varieties undoubt- 

 edly " run out " with rapidity, depending on the extent of crossing 

 that takes place. 



The well-known fact that some of the best and most popular varie- 

 ties have been grown for many j^ears in the same place should be 

 sufficient in itself to discredit the idea that degeneration of varieties 

 is inevitable or to be expected in a few seasons. The well-known 

 " Triumph " cotton, bred by Mr. Alexander Mebane, of Lockhart, 

 Tex., has been maintained for 28 years by continued selection of the 

 same stock, as stated personally by Mr. Mebane at a meeting of South 

 Texas cotton growers at Corpus Christi on October 16, 1920. 



Yet the superstition of " changing the seed " is widely current in 

 the cotton industry and continues to be propagated by seed dealers 

 as well as by owners or managers of gins and oil mills, who often 

 sell carloads of " fresh seed " to the farmers of the surrounding com- 

 munity, regardless of the fact that bringing more kinds of seed into 

 the community only widens the range of mixing that goes on at the 

 gins and the crossing in the fields. No matter how good the " new " 

 seed may be, there is no hope of retaining the uniformity of any 

 select stocks that may be added to the general mixture. The only 

 prospect of having a good variety to use is by united community 



