12 BULLETIN 60, U. S. DEPAKTMENT OP AGEICULTUEE. 



system of buying. In former decades, when the quahty of the fiber 

 was considered, nobody would have thought of growing such cotton 

 or of breeding such varieties. In addition to their mferior hnt, the 

 high percentage varieties usually have smaller seeds and weaker 

 seedlings, a very undesbable character from the agricultural stand- 

 point. It is easier to secure higher percentages by selecting varia- 

 tions toward small seeds than to increase the amount of lint on the 

 seeds.^ 



Manufacturers have assumed or have been led to suppose that the 

 dangers threatening the cotton industry were purely agricultural, 

 such as the exhaustion of the soil, change of climate, or attacks of 

 the boll weevil, and this makes it harder for them to understand 

 that the primary causes of deterioration in the quality of the fiber 

 have been commercial rather than agricultural. This does not mean, 

 of course, that there are not many other agricultural improvements 

 that need to be made, but it does mean that the manufacturer should 

 take greater care to see that the farmer has the necessary induce- 

 ment to plant superior varieties and to adopt the more careful meth- 

 ods that are necessary to produce better fiber. 



DETERIORATION OF THE SEA ISLAND COTTON CROP. 



Until recent years some of the planters of Sea Island cotton in 

 South Carolina have been able to sell their crops direct to the Euro- 

 pean manufacturers. In order to be sure of having the particular 

 strain of fiber that the planter raised, the manufacturer often made 

 contracts for several years in advance and at prices well above the 

 ordinary market quotations. The possibihty of securing these 

 advantageous contracts led the more intelligent planters on the Sea 

 Islands to use one of the most highly speciahzed systems of selection 

 that has ever been applied to cotton or to any other field crop grown 

 from seed. In order to provide the uniformity of fiber so much 

 desired by the manufacturer, the Sea Island planter raised the crop 

 of each year from seed derived from a single individual plant. In 

 order to do this, it was necessary to select a superior individual three 

 or four years in advance and keep its progeny separate while the 

 stock of seed was being increased. 



As long as the planters had the prospect of securing a fair return 

 for these precautions, extra care was taken to protect the uniformity 

 of the stocks. But now that the system of buying has been changed 

 and the special contracts are no longer made, the pohcy of strict 

 selection is being relaxed. A rapid deterioration of the Sea Island 

 crop is said to have taken place, and this is easily unde^'stood from 

 the diversity that exists in many of the fields. Some of the planters 



1 Cook, O. F. Danger in judging cotton varieties by lint percentages. U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 Bureau of Plant Industry, Circular 11, IR p., 1908. 



