COTTON BREEDING 307 



effected by the more painstaking method described in 

 paragraph 278. 



276. Qualities needing improvement. — Selection or 

 breeding is capable of improving the cotton plant in every 

 desirable quaUty. Among those directions in which im- 

 provement should be sought are the following : — 



(1) Increase in the yield of lint ; 



(2) Increased earliness; 



(3) Increase in size of boll ; 



(4) Greater length of lint ; 



(5) More uniformity in the length of Unt ; 



(6) Improvement in the form of plant or method of 

 branching ; 



(7) Increase in the percentage of Unt' of some varieties ; 

 and 



(8) Greater resistance to diseases. 



276. Some antagonistic qualities. — Some of the quali- 

 ties just mentioned tend to exclude other desirable ones. 

 The following pairs of qualities are generally antagonistic ; 

 that is, rarely, if ever, found in the same individual plant : — 



(1) Extreme earliness is opposed to extremely large 

 bolls. 



(2) Extreme earliness is usually not associated with the 

 highest yields of hnt, except when the fruiting season is 

 shortened by early frost or by the presence of the boll- 

 weevil. 



(3) Great length of lint excludes the probabihty of a 

 high percentage of lint. 



(4) A high percentage of hnt is seldom found in varieties 

 or strains having large seeds. 



As a rule, any progress m improving one of these characters 



