20 BULLETIlSr 1030, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



rior pollen. After the bolls begin to reach mature size it is well to go through 

 the plat again and pull out all plants that show by the small size or other pe- 

 culiarities of the bolls that there has been a variation from the standards of 

 the variety. These preliminary selections greatly simplify the final selection in 

 the fall, when attention can be limited to the yield and to the characters of the 

 lint and seeds (2,3). (Pis. X and XI.) 



USE OF PROGENY ROWS IN SELECTION. 



Selection can be made still more efficient by the use of progeny rows. The 

 seed of select individual plants is picked separately into paper bags and planted 

 the next season in adjacent rows, in order to test the behavior of the progenies 

 of the different individuals. An inferior progeny can be rejected as a whole 

 and selection limited to the best rows. It often happens that a very good plant 

 produces a comparatively inferior progeny, which would not be excluded from 

 the stock unless the progeny-row test were made. 



Nevertheless, the use of progeny rows is no substitute for skill and care in 

 making the selection, for if the selected plants are not all of the true type of 

 the variety, admixture by cross-pollination will occur in the progeny rows the 

 same as in a mixed planting. Protection against the danger of crossing be- 

 tween different progenies can be secured by holding over a part of the seed of 

 the select individuals used to plant the progeny rows. The remainder of the 

 seed that produced the best progeny row can be planted in an isolated breed- 

 ing plat in the year following the progeny test. In this way a special strain is 

 developed from a single superior plant. 



SPINNING TESTS OF MEADE COTTON. 



That interest in the new Meade variety was being manifested by 

 New England manufacturers was shown by the purchase of several 

 bales of this fiber in 1918 for the purpose of conducting comparative 

 spinning tests with the Sea Island and Egj^ptian cottons. The results 

 of one of these tests comparing the Meade and the Egyptian Sakellari- 

 clis cottons are shown in Table 3. 



Commenting on the general merits of the variety, the officers of 

 the company making the tests reported in Table 3 state : 



The Meade cotton ran equally as well in all processes, and the only material 

 difference was the lessening of twist in the speed frames to an extent of 20 

 per cent. We consider the Meade to be a very desirable cotton and would 

 suggest the encouragement of its growth on as large a scale as possible. 



Comparative tests of Sea Island and Meade cotton conducted by 

 the Bureau of Markets were summarized in the annual report of that 

 bureau for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1920 [13, p. 20-21). 



These spinning tests were conducted at the New Bedford Textile 

 School and consisted in spinning the various cottons into different 

 numbers of yarns to determine the comparative waste content of the 

 cotton and the tensile strength of the yarn. The tensile-strength 

 tests were made in the cotton-testing laboratory in Washington, 

 D. C, under 65 per cent relative humidity. 



