COTTON BREEDING 305 



271. The simplest' method of selection. — The follow- 

 ing method of selection is recommended as practicable for 

 most farmers who cannot afford to devote much attention 

 to cotton breeding, but who desire to maintain or slowly 

 improve the purity and excellence of any good variety : — 



At the first or second picking, let one of the most care- 

 ful of the pickers precede the others and pick into one bag 

 the seed cotton from the best plants. 



The plants chosen by this picker must be very productive, 

 and they should possess in addition the other quahties 

 desired; — for example, earliness and a certain size of boll. 

 Moreover, all plants chosen for seed should be uniform in 

 the appearance of the plant and in the other qualities 

 desired. Thus, in a big-boll variety, every plant having 

 medium or small bolls should be rejected, no matter how 

 numerous the bolls may be. Likewise in selecting seed of 

 a semicluster variety, no bolls from a long-limbed plant, 

 howsoever productive, should be picked into the sack 

 intended for seed. 



272. Principal qualities desired in the plant. — A care- 

 ful person engaged in selecting cotton soon becomes so 

 expert that, as he walks along the row, he can detect at a 

 glance the mOst promising plants. Then he should make a 

 hasty decision as to whether each productive plant com- 

 bines the following important points : — 



(1) Desired size of bolls ; 



(2) A large number of bolls ; 



(3) The desired degree of earliness ; 



(4) The shape of plant characteristic of that variety ; and 



(5) Freedom from disease, such as boll-rot, rust, and 

 cotton wilt. 



