COTTON BREEDING 311 



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Fig. 144. — Diagram showing a Breeding-Plot of Twenty Rows 

 OF Cotton. 



The best plants {x, x) are selected on the best rows (Nos. 5 and 16) for 

 planting the next year's breeding-plot of cotton. 



Bach horizontal line represents a row in the plant-to-row test 

 each year. An "X" represents a selected plant on one of the 

 best rows. Each plant-to-row patch is planted with seed from 

 these best individuals, the seed of each plant occupying a sepa- 

 rate row. 



The next diagram (Fig. 145) shows the possibility of obtaining 

 in three or four years from a single original plant enough seed to 

 plant an entire farm. 



279. Plant-breeding a specialty. — Most farmers can 

 practice the simple method of selection first described, but 

 few will be able to give the time and pains to careful work 

 with the plant-to-row method. Yet so much superior 

 to average seed of even the purest varieties are seed pro- 

 duced by the plant-to-row method that farmers can better 

 afford to pay a fancy price for small amounts of seed thus 

 improved than to plant ordinary seed. Undoubtedly 

 in the future the tendency will be for plant-breeding to 

 become a business or a profession requiring the entire 



