306 SOUTHERN FIELD CROPS 



Each farmer should decide for himself whether it is 

 practicable for him, in selecting cotton, to consider other 

 qualities not so readily detected, such as length of lint 

 and .proportion of five-lock bolls. 



273. Defects in bolls. — In selecting seed for planting, 

 either by the simple method now under discussion or by a 

 more careful method to be described later, no boll should 

 be picked for seed that has any of the following defects : — 



(1) Spots on the hull or bur, due to disease; 



(2) Any imperfectly developed lock, or any lock not 

 fully open; and 



(3) Diminutive size of boll. 



A boll with disease spots or with a defective lock is apt 

 to convey the germs of disease to the next crop. 



274. The seed-patch. — The cotton picked for seed 

 from the best plants as directed above should be carefully 

 ginned, taking care to avoid any mixing at the gin. The 

 next season the selected seed thus obtained should be 

 planted thinly in a seed-patch having uniform soil and 

 separated, if possible, by a quarter of a mile from any other 

 cotton. 



Each year a similar seed-patch should be planted with 

 seed selected from the best plants of the preceding year's 

 seed-patch. The remaining seed, after the best plants have 

 been picked over once, will usually suffice to plant the en- 

 tire farm. 



The method of selection described in the last few para- 

 graphs is practicable on almost any farm, whether large or 

 small. However, this method alone will serve rather to 

 maintain established excellence than to afford any notable 

 and rapid improvement in the variety, which must be 



